Best Buy has announced that it will be offering its customers free next-day delivery over the holiday season. Nearly all orders will be eligible for the offer, with the exception of larger items like major appliances and TVs.
“About 99 percent of Best Buy customers (so, almost everyone) now get Free Next-Day Delivery on thousands of items,” Best Buy said in a release. “From tablets to headphones to espresso machines, tons of the most popular holiday items are included. But, it excludes some bigger and heavier things like big-screen TVs and refrigerators (basically if it’s too big to fit down the chimney).”
The retailer added that customers who ordered something that doesn’t qualify for free next-day delivery will still get free standard shipping all holiday season, with no membership or minimum purchase required.
Retailers competing with Amazon
A number of other retailers have made moves to compete with Amazon, which has been a dominating force in past holiday shopping seasons. After Amazon announced that it’s ramping up its free one-day delivery program for Prime members, Walmart announced that it will also offer customers next-day delivery.
In its announcement, Walmart underscored the fact that its speedier shipping service will be available to all consumers and will not require a membership fee. Amazon, meanwhile, requires customers to pay $119 a year for free two-day shipping and other perks.
Target has also expanded its same-day delivery options, following Walmart and Amazon’s lead. The retailer announced back in June that 65,000 items on Target.com were available to be delivered the same day through its partnership with Shipt, which the company acquired in 2017.
Earlier this week, in what also appears to be a move to compete with Amazon, UPS announced that it’s launching a fulfillment service for online retailers. The company said its new eFulfillment initiative “combines proprietary e-commerce management technology with trusted, reliable UPS fulfillment and shipping to simplify multi-channel e-commerce sales.”
“Our portal provides visibility to all your orders and inventory. You simply select how fast it needs to get to your customer -- we do the rest,” UPS said.