Subscribers of ShippingPass, which had offered two-day delivery for a $49 membership, will receive refunds as the service is eliminated, Wal-Mart said in a statement. The new approach – rolled out Tuesday morning – offers the same shipping speed for free to anyone who makes a minimum purchase.
It comes as no surprise that we are in the prime (pun not intended) of the e-commerce boom, in which shoppers of all ages are turning to the internet for their shopping needs. Gone are the days where customers are simply shopping for gifts, clothes or electronics online, but are now turning to the web to shop for everyday household items such as groceries, cleaning supplies and even their morning breakfast order of coffee and breakfast sandwiches (looking at you Seamless, which I'm pretty sure isn't yet available in Maine, which is super neat). In an age in which speed is the number one decider among consumers on where to shop, e-commerce giant Amazon has nonetheless been the leader in this industry for years upon years.
However, super commerce giant Wal-Mart announced Tuesday it is scrapping its customer membership program ShippingPass in which customers pay a yearly fee of $49 for two-day delivery and is simply going with two-day shipping on all orders over $35 with no annual fee. In fact, I had no idea Wal-Mart even had a shipping loyalty program so this is certainly news to me, but if we're talking about shipping speed and total cost, this is certainly a smart move to compete with the illustrious and incredibly convenient Amazon Prime. Wal-Mart by no means is nipping at the heels of Amazon, especially with total sales generating only (only, ha) $4 billion in 2015 compared to over $100 billion from Amazon during the same period. Regardless, this is a very strong step to make the e-commerce arena more competitive especially with Wal-Marts low prices in their back pocket.
All this being said, I watched a local news segment last night which featured a woman who purchases something online every single day. How does this happen? What do you possibly need to buy on a daily basis? She further explained how she shops for all things clothes, food, the works and with her rather large family she doesn't have the time to shop at traditional stores. She was also asked the question of "how long is too long" to wait for online shipping. In coordination with Wal-Mart's announcement yesterday, she said if it takes three days to ship then it's too long.
THREE DAYS? THREE DAYS IS TOO LONG? This is what I'm talking about with speed being a key decider on where people are going to shop. I have friends who have waited a solid month for a replica hockey or football jersey shipping from China and had no complaints whatsoever (probably because they paid about $50 for a supposedly authentic jersey which I suppose is worth it). It will certainly be interesting to see these types of trends among other online retailers and how things will play out in the near future, because shoppers today are so infatuated with speed and instantaneous service. It seems rather ironic that the woman mentioned above shops online daily for groceries to be shipped in two days from the comfort of her own home, but somehow can't spend an hour at the local Hannaford's? Whatever works, I guess.
http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/31/wal-mart-shipping-program-sent-packing-after-8-months/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/266282/annual-net-revenue-of-amazoncom/
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