From CNET: Walmart waited a decade to introduce a membership shipping service to compete against Amazon's hugely successful Prime program. Less than two years later, it's killing off the new program and changing tactics.
The big-box retailer said Tuesday it got rid of ShippingPass, which offered unlimited two-day shipments on Walmart.com for $49 annually. In its place, Walmart cut the minimum for free shipping and sped up those deliveries.
You can now get free shipping for orders of at least $35, down from $50, and get your items in two days, down from four to seven days for standard shipping. (The change rolls out at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday.) That's an improvement from Amazon's offer for non-Prime members, with free shipping kicking in at $49 and orders taking five to eight days to arrive.
"At this day and age, two-day shipping is table stakes, so we don't think we should charge membership for it," Marc Lore, Walmart's new US head of e-commerce, told reporters ahead of the announcement.
Lore's comment might be seen as a dig at Amazon, which charges $99 annually for Prime and the service's most popular benefit of unlimited, two-day shipping. Yet, the move also shows how much Amazon and Prime have changed the world of commerce, forcing Walmart -- the world's biggest retailer by revenue -- to finally give in to two-day shipping as a default. Others retailers may follow suit to keep up.
View: Article @ Source Site
