M+E Daily
Holiday Promotion Watch: Walmart Adds Free Shipping for Blu-ray Players, Videogames
Story Highlights
Blu-ray players are among the nearly 60,000 items for which Walmart.com now offers free shipping, as part of a holiday promotion that steps up the retailer’s competition with the likes of Amazon.com and Target.
The free-shipping offer runs through Dec. 20, and carries no minimum purchase value, according to the retailer. The New York Times reports that with shoppers still strapped for cash, shipping rates are poised to play a bigger role in retailers’ holiday-season fortunes this year; competition on shipping could intensify in 2011 if Walmart decides to extend its holiday program.
Walmart.com offers free home shipping (5-8 days) on nearly all of the Blu-ray players it sells, matching a perk that is offered on most best-selling Blu-ray players on Amazon.com as well.
While it also offers free home shipping on select videogame titles, Walmart’s free-shipping option for individual Blu-ray discs and DVDs —such as Disney’s four-disc “Toy Story 3” Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy set ($24.98) — is “site-to-store,” necessitating customer pickup at a local brick-and-mortar outlet. In comparison, Amazon offers the same “Toy Story 3” set for $24.99, one penny less than the minimum required for the site’s “free super saver shipping.” (Amazon customers also can pay $79 to receive a year’s worth of two-day shipping on all purchases.)
