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Walmart kills its Amazon Prime-style shipping service
After launching it less than a year ago, Walmart is scrapping ShippingPass, a subscription program meant to compete with Amazon Prime's free shipping. Instead, it will offer free two-day shipping without a membership, provided you order goods worth up to $35, down from $50. By contrast, ShippingPass members got free shipping on all items with a $50 membership -- half the price of Amazon Prime, but without major perks like same-day shipping and music and video streaming.
Run-DMC sues Amazon, Walmart over online counterfeits
It's not just tech giants like Apple that are taking online stores to task for allowing counterfeit goods on their virtual shelves. Run-DMC is suing Amazon, Walmart (including Jet.com) and partners for selling bogus shirts, hats and other goods that violate the legendary group's trademark. The internet retailers are allegedly "trading on the goodwill" of Run-DMC by either allowing third parties to sell counterfeits or, in Amazon's case, supposedly selling the fakes directly.
Walmart tries using blockchain to take unsafe food off shelves
It's scary when stores have to pull unsafe food. It can take days to pinpoint the batch or supplier that caused the problem, which could lead to people getting sick... or at best, force the store to yank more products than necessary. Walmart believes technology could offer a better way. It's trying out blockchain's distributed ledger as a means of identifying the sources of poisonous food. Digital receipts for the food identify everyone in the supply chain, ranging from the original location through to the inspectors and shipping companies. If everything passing through a specific warehouse is making people ill, Walmart can identify that troublesome food and yank it within minutes -- and there's no easy way for unscrupulous suppliers to alter the info.
To stay competitive, Walmart and Target turn to startups for help
Ten startup teams are holed up in Minneapolis through next month to use a new retail-focused accelerator there to launch everything from voice-based search technology for retailers to interactive games that help kids learn STEM concepts. Their workspace is a typical startup bullpen -- an open zone filled with things like boxes of food, Apple products, whiteboards with rows of Post-its and signs hanging from the ceiling that mark each startup's turf.
Walmart buys Jet.com to better fight Amazon
Walmart has officially acquired Jet.com for $3 billion, a purchase that will significantly enhance its online retail presence. The US retailer didn't pitch it as such, but the deal -- leaked on Friday -- will help it compete with its fiercest online rival, Amazon. "Walmart.com will grow faster, the seamless shopping experience we're pursuing will happen quicker, and we'll enable the Jet brand to be even more successful in a shorter period of time," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement.
Walmart launches free two-day shipping nationwide
After a brief trial run in test cities, Walmart's plan to take on Amazon Prime launched across America this week, Reuters reports. The $49 per year ShippingPass membership now offers free two-day shipping to all shoppers in the US, and to lure away Amazon's Prime members, the big-box retailer is offering a free 30-day trial.
Walmart is testing grocery deliveries with Uber and Lyft
Online grocery deliveries are commonplace in Europe, but America's size makes it difficult for even the largest firms to offer it nationwide. That's why Walmart is teaming up with Uber and Lyft to test a delivery service for online shoppers. All a user has to do is order their usual groceries online and a Walmart employee will gather all of it together. When ready, an Uber or Lyft will be called and dispatched to your home with a trunk full of pizza rolls, toothpaste and Kleenex.
Walmart trials stock-checking drones in its warehouses
Few jobs are more monotonous than counting inventory all day, every day. Maybe that's why Walmart is thinking about farming the job out to drones. The retailer is running tests to see if camera equipped drones can help speed up inventory counts in its distribution centers. So far, results are promising -- during a recent demo of the technology, Walmart said that the drones could potentially do a month's worth of human labor in a single day.
Walmart Pay launches across Texas and Arkansas today
Walmart's mobile payment service is beginning a massive rollout today, with Walmart Pay launching at around 600 stores across Texas and Arkansas.
