Walmart Hints at an answer to Amazon's 1-day free shipping plan - USA TODAY

Daniel B. Kline The Motley Fool

Published 8:31 AM EDT May 1, 2019

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) changed the e-commerce game when it quietly let it be known that it planned to turn its two-day free shipping perk for Prime members into a one-day free shipping perk. That shift, in some ways, took rivals including Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) from being on roughly the same playing field as the online retail giant to being a big step behind.

The question for those major competitors is, should they try to offer one-day shipping on most products as well? That will likely prove a major logistical challenge, given that both companies struggled to match Amazon's two-day standard. It could be argued that it would make more sense for the chains to lean into their brick-and-mortar footprints and leverage the advantages of having a physical presence, rather than trying to keep up with Amazon on its virtual home turf.

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Walmart has certainly been working toward that strategy with its omnichannel transformation, but the company has also made it clear that it takes Amazon's plan as a challenge. Walmart management hasn't offered any specific or firm plans in response yet, but the company did provide a clue about its thinking in a bold Tweet.

One-day free shipping...without a membership fee. Now THAT would be groundbreaking. Stay tuned.

— Walmart (@Walmart) April 26, 2019

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