I was jumping on Walmart.com yesterday to look to see if they had any cool sales going on. As the home page loaded, I noticed an interesting banner that I’d hadn’t seen before. Now, if you’ve shopping on Walmart’s online site, then you are used to their promotional banners. Typically it’s for the season or Father’s Day, but this was different. This smelled like the beginnings of an Amazon Prime type shipping service. Below is the banner ad I saw on the site.
Is Walmart.com Creating Something Like Amazon Prime?
There’s not secret on this blog that I have an Amazon Prime account. I’ve had it for years and I enjoy it. Heck, I even wrote a post breaking down the costs to see if Prime is worth the $100 yearly price tag. Now, that’s highly dependent on a number of factors, but for me, it is worth it. Not only that, but I share my Amazon Prime account with my sister for the shipping benefits.
You can see from the above banner that this is a “pilot” program. When I clicked the “Join Waitlist” button, I was greeted with a signup form that only asked for my email address and my zip code.
What is Walmart’s Unlimited Shipping Service?
Well, they haven’t provided a lot of detail around it yet. I’m assuming they are going to roll it out slowly in order to test the viability of the program. There have been reports that the Prime shipping benefits costs Amazon quite a bit of money, one reason for the $20 price increase, but who knows. If you order some large things that would normally cost $100 to ship, then that’s where you get a deal.
Walmart’s unlimited shipping service is just that. Only for shipping. They say they will give you unlimited shipping for a year for only $50. They offer fast shipping (3 days or faster) and it’s on a number of products in their best selling categories. I don’t know how large a selection that is, but Walmart is the largest brick-and-mortar retailer, so they have quite a bit of product to choose from.
Would you pay $50 a year for unlimited shipping on Walmart.com?
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As with Amazon Prime, I’m going to assume this will be restricted to specific products. Walmart does actually have a marketplace where they allow other retailers to sell on Walmart.com. I would assume those sellers’ products aren’t eligible for Walmart’s unlimited shipping service. All in all, I think this could be the start of a little offerings feud between Walmart.com and Amazon. Now, I’m OK with that. Typically, when big retailers begin an offerings feud, it’s the customer that wins with lower prices and better services. Typically…
I did just sign up for the waitlist because I want to know more about it. I don’t shop on Walmart.com enough to justify the $50 price tag, but I know quite a few people do. I have seen that Walmart does offer free shipping on orders over $50, so that could put a lot of weight into the decision to use this service. Amazon has a free shipping option of $35, but I typically shop when I need a product quickly and don’t want to fill my cart with add-ons just to hit the free shipping threshold. That’s one reason I have Amazon Prime!
What do you think about Walmart’s new unlimited shipping service? Think it will catch on?
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