Walmart has announced its 24 hour FREE shipping for items purchased worth more than only $35. Unfortunately,this is only starting in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California, but they hope to have this across 75% of the US by the end of the year (Yahoo Finance).

Last year, when Walmart closed over 60 Sam’s Clubs stores, I thought Walmart had accepted 2^nd place to Amazon, but Walmart seems to just be getting started. Previously, Walmart had acquired several online stores such as Bonobos and Moosejaw, and they also recently became more aggressive with online services. Their online sales have also increased by 37% an increase from 33% last year (CNBS).

Yet this announcement, of FREE 24 hour deliver on over 200,000 Walmart goods on their website sounds exciting, it only comes after responding to Amazon’s announcement of 24 hour deliver for prime members, which costs $119 (Yahoo Finance). When Amazon announced this news it had caused the shares of several bricks-and-mortar stores to spiral downhill.

For me a college student, on a student budget, this free shipping is a yay-yay, unlike paying for prime membership. I will dance to Walmart’s catching up game.  

              For the consumer, the “catch up game” is great because we benefit!

More competition means better services, more innovation and better deals for us.

This is also exciting news for fellow college students like me who don’t have vehicles (sob) and can now purchase groceries online for FREE. Every college student enjoys anything with the words FREE!

UBS estimates that it will cost Walmart about $215 million to try and catch up to Amazon with shipping.

The hope for Walmart is that:

more purchases from consumers = reduced costs

and 24 hour shipping is a reality 🙂