Chasing Amazon, Walmart’s Free Shipping Falls Short

Walmart is trying to catch up with Amazon in speedy shipping. New data show the Bentonville, Arkansas–based retailer has a long way to go.

In January 2017, Walmart pledged to offer free two-day shipping on more than 2 million products—including everything from coffee to diapers. And last October it said it was expanding the range of items that qualify for free shipping by “millions.” But data provided to The Information by the research firm Marketplace Pulse shows Walmart.com currently offers two-day shipping on only about 2.7 million products out of about 45 million total items for sale on the site.

And a similar shortfall in selection is evident with Walmart’s latest shipping offer. Last month, the retailer responded to an Amazon one-day shopping program announced weeks earlier by saying that it, too, was launching free one-day shipping—with up to 220,000 popular items qualifying. By the end of May though, Walmart.com had begun offering one-day shipping on a much smaller selection of about 130,000 items, according to Marketplace Pulse.