Walmart will begin offering free one-day delivery service for purchases worth $35 and above. Consumers can choose from 220,000 items in the company's online store and it will be at their doorsteps the next day.
As of this time, this is only available in Las Vegas and Phoenix but it will soon be will offered in Southern California too. By the end of 2019, Walmart is hoping that it can provide a fast delivery service too at least 75 percent of the whole U.S. population.
"When customers shop with us, they expect to find great items at low prices. They also want shopping to be easy and convenient, including getting the items they order online quickly," Marc Lore, President, and CEO, Walmart eCommerce U.S., stated via press release. "Our 4,700 stores, site and app combine to create an incredible range of choices for customers."
Walmart's announcement of its free next-day delivery service comes after Amazon ordered to speed up its free delivery for Prime members. From two days, the retail giant wants faster service so it was reduced to just one day. But while Walmart will now implement the same service, the difference is that Amazon does not require a minimum amount for the purchase since Prime members pay an annual fee of $119.
With Walmart and Amazon already implementing the one-day shipping, this delivery option may just become the trend as more companies may follow suit to retain their customers. While offering a faster delivery service seems easy, this move is actually a hard decision because providing this type of service cost a lot.
Amazon shelled out around $800 million to make its one-day delivery possible while Walmart will be spending even more. According to Reuters, it will have to allocate at least $215 million to implement its plans and compete with Jeff Bezos' company.
Lore suggested that Walmart did not copy the new Amazon delivery option by stating that they have actually thought of this plan since 2016 however it was not put into action earlier. "We have been working on this since I have gotten here..we have been building out the infrastructure for the last few years to support this," the CEO said.
Finally, in order to successfully carry out the one-day shipping option, Walmart will not be sending the boxed orders to warehouses anymore. Rather, it is planning to stock inventory in a warehouse that is close to the shoppers' locations for easy and fast distribution.
