Walmart fires back at Amazon in a snarky tweet attacking Prime member fees
- Walmart fired back at Amazon's one-day Prime shipping promise on Friday with a snarky tweet hinting that it would soon follow Amazon's lead.
- "One-day free shipping...without a membership fee. Now THAT would be groundbreaking. Stay tuned," Walmart tweeted.
- Walmart said in 2016 that it was capable of shipping packages to 70% of America within one day.
Amazon said Thursday that it would shorten its two-day Prime shipping promise to one day.
Walmart fired back late Friday with a snarky tweet hinting that it is planning to follow Amazon's lead.
"One-day free shipping...without a membership fee. Now THAT would be groundbreaking. Stay tuned," the company said in a tweet from its main Twitter account.
Amazon's new one-day shipping promise applies to members of its Prime membership program, which costs $119 annually.
Walmart rolled out free two-day shipping in 2017 without any membership fees, though orders must total a minimum of $35 to qualify.
Walmart has been working towards one-day shipping for years.
The company said in 2016 that it was capable of shipping packages to 70% of America within one day, but that it hadn't figured out a way to do it profitably, so it wasn't making the service available to customers yet.
Walmart is also building up its same-day shipping muscle.
In conversations between Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Quo Vadis Capital last October, McMillon characterized same-day shipping as the "final frontier" that "everyone is racing to develop," according to John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis Capital.