Looking to take a slice out of Amazon’s online retail dominance, Walmart introduced the $50-a-year ShippingPass subscription service last year.
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Wal-Mart (WMT) wants you to know that it, too, has speedy two-day shipping.
Good news, Walmart shoppers: The world’s largest retailer is offering a free 30-day trial of its Amazon Prime-like ShippingPass service, which gives you free, unlimited two-day shipping on Walmart.com orders.
The free shipping for 30 days, or an extra month free for paying members, starts Wednesday.
The 30-day trial has the potential to be a boon for Wal-Mart, especially when compared to Amazon’s 30-day trial numbers.
Similar to Amazon Prime, the annual subscription service offers free unlimited two-day shipping.
Wal-Mart’s rollbacks typically last 90 days or longer while supplies last. Amazon’s membership costs $99 a year but includes lots of perks.
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Walmart’s Amazon Prime competitor just got more competitive. In addition to the free trial of Shipping Pass, Walmart promised in a company blog post that shoppers will see “some unbelievable items at great prices kicking in” starting July 1. Amazon is expected to host another Prime Day, a one-day shopping event that echoes Black Friday or Cyber Monday, though a date hasn’t yet been confirmed. While Wal-Mart’s online store offers more than 7 million items, the figure comes in well short of Amazon Prime’s 20 million. CNBC points out the company had a year to prepare since Prime Day’s inaugural outing. Amazon has said that Prime subscribers are far more likely to purchase items on Amazon, even if they just purchase the subscription for the video or music services. Some of its efforts to boost digital sales include the rapid expansion of grocery pickup, in which customers place an order online and pick it up curbside at a nearby store.
