S&P 500
7,226.20
+0.01%
Dow Jones
49,494.60
-0.62%
Nasdaq 100
27,685.40
+0.66%
Russell 2000
2,804.78
-0.02%
FTSE 100
10,364.50
0.00%
Nikkei 225
59,260.50
-0.78%

Retail

Wal-Mart’s Free Shipping, Maybe Amazon Should Follow

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The management at Wal-Mart (WMT) has come up with something to replace fighting with its unions and firing its marketing brass. Free shipping of tons of products that consumers buy on its website to store outlets where they can be picked up. The program will be in 3,300 stores by mid-year.

So clever. It would appear that the new program gets customers to show up in stores and spend more money while they are there. Nice way to move up same store sales.

Since many of the items are only available online, store sales are not hurt much, if at all.

Wal-Mart needs something smart and customer friendly to get more people into the stores. Pulling them in with free shipping may just be the ticket. As long as some of them buy something to offset the shipping costs.

Companies including Amazon (AMZN) offer free shipping. Unfortunately, they don’t have stores where people can be encouraged to buy additional items.

Maybe Amazon will open some outlets to take advantage of the Wal-Mart idea.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Amazon Drops Free Shipping Minimum to $25
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Amazon Drops Free Shipping Minimum to $25

Free shipping tactics have become a major part of retail competition for online customers. The news of Amazon's $25 minimum…
Walmart Desperately Tries to Take Amazon Customers with Free Shipping
Paul Ausick |

Walmart Desperately Tries to Take Amazon Customers with Free Shipping

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) last month dropped the price of its Shipping Pass program by $1 a year, to…
Paul Ausick |

Sam’s Club Quietly Tests Subscription E-commerce Program

In a swipe at Amazon.com and Target, Walmart last October quietly launched a subscription service to members of its Sam's…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

More Retailers Step Toward Free Shipping

Some consumers use free shipping as a means to cut total costs of retail purchases. There is no telling how…
Amazon Offers 2-Hour Shipping as Holidays End
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Amazon Offers 2-Hour Shipping as Holidays End

Amazon.com wants to get one last slug of revenue before the holiday clock hits midnight on its way into Christmas.
Same-Day Delivery Least Popular Option Among Retailers
Paul Ausick |

Same-Day Delivery Least Popular Option Among Retailers

Traditional retailers have adopted a variety of delivery options to compete with online-only retailers, but same-day delivery is not a…
Wal-Mart Claims Its Savings Are Permanent
Paul Ausick |

Wal-Mart Claims Its Savings Are Permanent

Now that the dust has settled from Amazon's second Prime Day promotion, Wal-Mart continues to take pokes at the online…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Amazon (AMZN): All AT&T (T) Phones–A Penny A Piece

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon (AMZN),  is known for being eccentric, but his new handset offer may…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

24/7 Wall St. TV: Amazon Sells Phones For A Penny

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon (AMZN),  is known for being eccentric, but his new handset offer may…

Top Gaining Stocks

Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 1,568,143
New Pluto Global
PSKY • Vol: 12,285,993
Seagate Technology
STX • Vol: 7,378,346
Oracle
ORCL • Vol: 26,317,675
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ • Vol: 4,367,433
Clorox
CLX • Vol: 13,260,523
Stryker
SYK • Vol: 4,519,455
Mohawk Industries
MHK • Vol: 1,859,865
Amgen
AMGN • Vol: 3,818,618