Pay $99 for an Amazon Prime membership and Amazon will give you free 2-day shipping on millions of items… as well as access to a library of digital movies, TV shows, music, and eBooks.
Few companies have the resources to offer all of those things for one monthly price. But Walmart decided to try the pay-for-free-shipping thing. Less than two years ago the nation’s largest retailer started offering customers the option of paying $50 per year to get free 3-day shipping on many items.
Now the company is revamping that program by killing the annual fee and moving to free 2-day shipping for everyone. Sort of.
Free shipping is only available on orders of $35 or more, and Walmart’s selection of eligible items is smaller than Amazon’s.
Still, Walmart says more than 2 million items qualify for free shipping, including “items customers shop the most” from categories including electronics, toys, beauty products, baby products, food, and pet care products.
There’s no word on whether Walmart has any plans to roll out subscription music or video offerings, but the company does own movie streaming service Vudu.
