Retailer Walmart is taking on Amazon Prime by rolling out a nationwide membership program providing free shipping to customers who sign up for its ShippingPass program. The price of the program is $49, which is half that of Amazon's, and the company is offering a free 30-day trial to all new subscribers, along with a free month to those customers who are already members of the program.
Walmart has been vocal about taking on Amazon directly and recently rolled out the ShippingPass program in select areas. When it was announced, the system only offered free 3-day shipping, but in order to better compete with its biggest online rival, the store has reduced the shipping time to just two days.
In order to promote the rollout, Walmart has also announced that it will be offering a free 30-day trial of the ShippingPass program to all customers. That also echoes Amazon's policy of offering its Prime service free for 30 days to all customers, also as a free trial. Walmart also pledged to offer an additional month to all customers who have already signed up and paid the $49 annual fee for the program, anticipating the potential frustration of consumers who already paid for the service without ever being able to take advantage of the free trial. Those customers should be receiving an email confirming their free month shortly, according to Fernando Madeira, president and CEO, Walmart.com U.S.
"ShippingPass is about half the price of similar programs out there at just $49 a year, and customers who are using it, love it," said Madeira. "They shop on Walmart.com more often to take advantage of our low prices, fast shipping and added benefits of no minimum order requirements and free online or in-store returns. Once you start using it, it's hard not to notice the everyday low prices on the stuff you need and want."
While ShippingPass is indeed half the cost of Amazon Prime, it doesn't include many of the other services and benefits offered with the Prime program, which includes unlimited video and music streaming services, cloud photo storage and free e-books. Amazon also offers free same day shipping with Prime in certain areas, and has recently allowed customers the option to purchase the service on a monthly basis for $9.99 as opposed to charging a one-time annual fee.
ShippingPass has no specific minimum order amount as opposed to Amazon Prime's $35 threshold. As is the case with Amazon Prime, however, the program only applies to those products that display the ShippingPass logo on the company's website. Observers will notice that many of the lowest priced items on Walmart's website do not display the ShippingPass logo, indicating in many cases there is a de facto minimum purchase.
One big competitive advantage that Walmart maintains, however, is the possibility for customers to return their online purchases to any of the company's hundreds of retail stores throughout the country, while Amazon customers need to ship their orders back to the company in order to be refunded.
Customers wishing to take advantage of the 30-day free trial ShippingPass offer can sign up at this link. We recommend that consumers not officially sign up for the program until they are actually ready to make their first purchase using it, in order to maximize the benefit of the trial period.
