Amazon strikes back at Walmart's free 2-day shipping offer
Getty Images
The retailer just lowered its free-shipping minimum from $49 to $35 for customers who aren't members of its Prime membership program.
The change appears to be a response to Walmart's recent rollout of free two-day shipping for all customers on orders over $35.
Amazon is likely hoping that the change makes it better able to compete with Walmart for non-Prime members.
But Walmart is still the better deal for those customers because it offers all shoppers two-day delivery free of cost - something Amazon only offers to Prime members.
"Although non-Prime members can now avoid shipping fees, they will still have to wait for up to a week for their packages to arrive," said Sarah Engel, senior vice president of global marketing for the retail analytics firm DynamicAction. "The fact that Amazon didn't outright match Wal-mart's free shipping timeline shows their continued commitment to the recurring revenue Prime model."
Amazon Prime members pay $99 annually for free two-day shipping and a host of other services like unlimited streaming of movies and music. Prime members don't have to spend a minimum to qualify for free shipping.
Walmart's online sales were $13.7 billion in 2015, compared with Amazon's $107 billion. Walmart is still far ahead in terms of overall sales, however.
Walmart generated $486 billion in fiscal 2016, which is more than three times as much as Amazon's revenue of $136 billion.
Get the latest Walmart stock price here.
- RBI Governor Das discusses ways to scale up UPI ecosystem with stakeholders
- People find ChatGPT to have a better moral compass than real humans, study reveals
- TVS Motor Company net profit rises 15% to ₹387 crore in March quarter
- Canara Bank Q4 profit rises 18% to ₹3,757 crore
- Indegene IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market