Walmart Drops Its $35 Shipping Minimum for Subscription Service

There are a lot of things to love about online shopping, especially during a pandemic. We can get almost everything we need delivered, and often, we don’t even have to pay for delivery.

If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you know the joy of getting quick shipping on essentials, gifts and even food. With Amazon Fresh, we can also enjoy getting our groceries delivered as long as we make a $35+ purchase.

In an attempt to compete with Amazon, Walmart launched their subscription service, Walmart+, in September. For $98 a year, subscribers can enjoy free 1-day and 2-day shipping of many items for free. The only catch was that subscribers had to place a minimum of a $35 order in order to take advantage of the free shipping.

Walmart+ doesn’t have all the perks of Amazon Prime either. For example, Prime has original TV shows and movies included for free plus music and even the ability to upload photos. Meanwhile, Walmart’s subscription service has a different set of perks like a discount on gas. Customers also have the ability to scan items in stores themselves through the Walmart app which means they don’t have to wait in line to checkout.

UBS analyst Michael Lasser estimates that Walmart+ already has about 5 million subscribers, and Lasser expects the big box store to have 10 million subscribers within its first year. However, Amazon Prime has over 150 million subscribers.

In order to be more attractive to Amazon subscribers, Walmart has made a big change to their subscription service. Previously, subscribers had to have an order totaling at least $35 in order to qualify for free shipping while Amazon doesn’t have a minimum order requirement in order for Prime members to get free shipping.

Walmart has decided to drop the $35+ minimum order amount so that Walmart+ subscribers can place an order of any amount and still enjoy free shipping. The only time customers would need to place an order of at least $35 would be when they are ordering groceries. This is equivalent to what Amazon requires with it’s grocery store service called Amazon Fresh.

Are you more likely to subscribe to Walmart+ knowing that there is no longer a minimum order requirement? Are you an Amazon Prime subscriber?