Walmart and Amazon Clash on Free Shipping, But Only One Has Multiple Thematic Tailwinds
The battle for the digital consumer is on with Amazon responding to Walmart’s attempts to grow its online and mobile business. Back in February, Amazon cut its free shipping price from $49 to $35 and this week is slashed that down to $25, which compares to Walmart’s current $35 minimum for free shippping. We can understand using this tactic to entice non-Prime customers, but in our view a few orders gets you to Prime and that’s before you consider all the services Prime members get like streaming audio, video, storage and others.
While Walmart is looking to compete with Amazon when it comes ot the Connected Society, Amazon’s Content is King, Cashless Consumption and Disruptive Technology tailwinds more than make up the difference.
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) said on Tuesday it cut the threshold for free shipping to $25 from $35, upping the ante against Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) in a hotly contested battle for ecommerce supremacy.
The world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been building up its ecommerce business through acquisitions such as Jet.com, as it looks to narrow the massive gap with Amazon.
Wal-Mart started its own membership program called ShippingPass last year, which offered free two-day shipping for $49 a year. However, the company ended the program in January, replacing it with free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more.
