Shopper Marketing - May 2017 - 42
| HEADING HEADINGREPORT SPECIAL RETAIL INTIMACY 2.0 (PART 1) Winning at Walmart.com In collaboration with: As the retailer steps up its e-commerce game, marketers must do their part to help create a better overall shopping experience. By Michael Applebaum O ver the past 12 months, the storylines in the ongoing struggle for e-commerce supremacy among the nation's top retailers have taken a number of twists and turns. One of the more intriguing subplots emerged earlier this year when the shipping wars heated up between Walmart and Amazon.com. On Jan. 31, 2017, Walmart sent a shot across the bow when it began offering free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more, replacing its previous subscription service with a much broader offer on nearly 2 million products. Three weeks later, Amazon shot back, lowering the minimum 42 y SHOPPER MARKETING MAY 2017 threshold for free delivery to its nonPrime members to the same $35 level. It was an unmistakable sign not only of how intense the competition had become to win over internet shoppers, whose already high expectations now include shorter delivery windows at little or no extra cost, but also just how quickly giants like Walmart and Amazon are willing to change tactics in this rapidly evolving retail environment. Walmart is giving every indication that it plans to remain agile as the entire industry adjusts to the reality that consumers no longer make binary "online" or "offline" choices in the ways that they shop,
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