Wal-Mart Takes Aim at Amazon With Free Shipping Offer

Wal-Mart is sweetening the deal for shoppers it wants to win over from Amazon.com by offering a free one-month trial of “ShippingPass,” its answer to its online rival’s Prime subscription plan. The world’s largest retailer said that starting this Friday it was offering a free 30-day trial of ShippingPass. That annual subscription service, like Prime, offers members unlimited free two-day shipping and no order minimums. The service costs $49 a year, compared to $99 for Amazon Prime.

Total Retail's Take: Don't think it's a coincidence that Wal-Mart announced this offer the same week Amazon made public the details of its second annual Prime Day. The two retail behemoths are fighting tooth and nail for online shoppers, with Amazon so far gaining the upper hand. It will be interesting to see if the additional sales drummed up by this ShippingPass offer exceed the distribution costs to Wal-Mart. Chances are that Wal-Mart is willing to take a small hit in the short term in exchange for getting more customers into its ShippingPass program, where they're more likely to increase their spend with the retailer — and move it away from Amazon.