Walmart will offer next-day delivery for online orders, rolling out the service in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California over the next few days, and expanding to about 75% of the country by the end of 2019.
On April 25, Amazon announced free one-day delivery for all Amazon Prime members. The company said it plans to spend $800 million during the second quarter on the service.
In January 2017, Walmart started offering free, two-day shipping for orders over $35.
“We have been working on this for the past several years,” Marc Lore, head of Walmart’s e-commerce business in the U.S., about the move toward next-day shipping, according to CNBC. “We’ve been investing … and now we are in the position to reap the benefits.”
To start, next-day delivery will be available for about 220,000 items “most frequently purchased” online, Walmart said. The company said it plans to make more items available to ship next day over time. And the option is only free for orders over $35.
Amazon has no minimum purchase threshold for free, next-day delivery but requires customers to have a Prime membership, which costs $119 per year.
Target — which offers free, two-day shipping for all of its credit card holders, with no minimum purchase requirement — has a curbside pickup option for shoppers at over 1,250 stores. It offers in-store pickup for online orders at all of its 1,850 locations.
Walmart will reportedly offer click-and-collect at 3,100 stores, as well as same-day grocery delivery from 1,600 locations, by the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, Amazon said it will start giving its current employees up to $10,000 in start-up costs to quit their jobs and form businesses delivering Amazon packages. If accepted into the program, the delivery helpers will be able to lease vans from Amazon. The offer is open to most part- and full-time Amazon employees, but not to Whole Foods workers.