Target Offers Free Shipping on Almost Everything

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 22, 6:33AM EDT

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Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has taken the “free shipping” trend of e-commerce to a whole new level. Between now and the end of December, it will offer “free shipping” on nearly everything it sells online. Target needs to produce something to help flagging sales created by both a huge data breach of its customer records and general downturn in the fortunes of the largest big-box retailers.

According to the Target website, the new policy is to get “Free Shipping Now With Every Order.” There is an asterisk, which makes the offer a little less attractive:

Free Standard shipping on all orders. Oversized handling fees may still apply. Valid on shipping to the 48 contiguous states and APO/FPO. Offer valid for a limited time only.

There are several other conditions, most of which have to do with how quickly orders get shipped. People who have something called a REDcard can get free shipping and 5% off many items. The deal seems too good to be true, but it isn’t.

So-called free shipping has a poor reputation among investors. For several years, Wall Street has criticized Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) for its expensive customer accommodation “free shipping” policy. Amazon Prime customers get free shipping on a number of things people buy at America’s largest e-commerce site, based on sales. The Prime deal costs $99 a year. However, the customers get the benefit of streaming video and music service, which only offers a benefit for people who want streaming video and music. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) offers its own version of free shipping, which has many conditions, based primarily on whether an order is for items that cost, in aggregate, more of less than $50.

Target’s aggressive new shipping offer may start a free shipping price war as the nation’s largest retailers jockey for holiday sales. The only thing that is certain about the race is that it will cost these companies a lot of money.

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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.