Walmart to offer free shipping for 30 days, keeping Amazon in mind

Walmart Stores Inc on Wednesday launched a free 30-day trial of ShippingPass, its two-day shipping programme for shoppers in the United States, as the world’s largest retailer looks to take on Amazon.com Inc’s Prime subscription service.  Walmart said that existing ShippingPass subscribers will get one month free. While Amazon Prime also offers two-day delivery on certain items, subscription to the service costs $99 a year. Walmart’s two-day service costs $49 a year. As with Prime, Walmart’s service has no minimum order but it is valid only on items that are flagged with the ShippingPass logo. Walmart does not offer same-day delivery, unlike Amazon which offers that option on a minimum order of $35. Walmart has announced a number of programs for its online business this year, including a partnership with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft for grocery deliveries. The innovations come at a time when Walmart’s online sales growth is slowing. Sales through the company’s website and mobile app increased 7 percent in the latest quarter compared with 17 percent a year earlier. This news comes immediately after Walmart decided to sell it’s Chinese division to JD.com for a 5 percent stake in the company. Reuters