Walmart removes $35 minimum order requirement for two-hour delivery service

In a direct challenge to Amazon, Walmart announced Monday it would remove its $ 35 minimum order requirement for its two-hour "Express" delivery service .

With Walmart Express Delivery, customers can order from Walmart's assortment of food , consumables or general merchandise , then pay a $10 flat fee to have those items delivered in two hours or less .

Tom Ward, senior vice president of customer products, noted in the announcement that the service can be used for more urgent delivery needs (such as diapers or missing ingredients in a formula). However, they will not replace larger shopping trips — express orders are capped at 65 items.

Today, Walmart says Express Delivery is available at nearly 3,000 Walmart stores, covering 70% of the U.S. population. As a third option, it builds on the store's existing pickup and delivery time slots, rather than giving them up to those who can pay more.

As with Walmart’s grocery and pickup orders, Express Delivery orders are purchased and packed for delivery by Walmart’s team of 170,000 personal shoppers , and items are priced the same as they would be in-store.

The delivery service is reportedly giving Walmart a potential advantage in its competition with grocery delivery services like Instacart or Shipt.

The express delivery service is reportedly very demanding for Walmart employees. Items can be more expensive in these services, and hurried or inexperienced shoppers can't always find items or don't search all the way to the end, so sometimes they have to mark items as " out of stock ." In theory, Walmart employees will have a better understanding of their store's inventory and layout, reducing the occurrence of such problems.

It is reported that this service is an important move by Walmart to challenge Amazon 's " Prime Now " . Prime Now also provides a combination service of groceries and other daily necessities and goods.

Currently, Prime Now's two-hour service requires a minimum order of $35 . In many cases, free delivery doesn't cost anything extra , though the Prime Now app explains that some local store partners charge a fee even when the minimum order is met, and other partners may have higher minimum order requirements, making the service confusing for consumers.

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