Walmart recently took the wraps off its new ShippingPass subscription, which offers free two-day shipping for a $49 annual membership fee. It seems like a direct challenge to the two-day free shipping offered to Amazon Prime members, who pay $99 per year.
Walmart's program starts with a 30-day trial, same as Amazon's. And there's no minimum order size for either. At first blush, Walmart is offering the same perk for half the price, but Amazon Prime comes with so many more perks.
MORE: What is Amazon Prime?
First, not all items at Walmart are available for ShippingPass's two-day shipping. For instance, any product that comes with freight charges is not eligible. To be fair, not all Amazon products qualify for free shipping either.
With Amazon Prime, though, you also get to share your account with family members. Same-day delivery is an option in some zip codes; in fact, one-hour delivery can be had on some items. Of course, at Walmart, you could just swing by a physical store to pick up an item. You can also return items to a brick-and-mortar Walmart location.
That said, Walmart's ShippingPass does not come with something like Prime Video and Prime Music for unlimited streaming of movies, TV shows and song, as Amazon Prime does. ShippingPass comes with unlimited photo storage in Amazon's cloud drive as well as access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for free e-book rentals. And that just covers the Amazon Prime media options.
Amazon Prime members get access to exclusive deals and discounts. Prime members get a 30-minute head start on Lightning Deals, and parents get a discount on FreeTime Unlimited, which gives you tons of child-friendly content for $2.99 instead of $4.99. Plus, some items are only available to Prime members, such as Grand Theft Auto and FIFA 16.
So, for $50 more per year, Amazon offers a ton of additional perks that Walmart's ShippingPass doesn't. However, ask yourself where you do the bulk of your online shopping and if you're going to take advantage of all those media streaming perks. Then you'll know which service is right for you.
