Walmart Hops on Free-Shipping Bandwagon

Online retailers believe free shipping is one of the most effective sales promotions they can offer during the holidays, as a recent survey indicated, and when Walmart announced a free-shipping holiday promotion this week, the media and consumers took notice. With Walmart's new promotion, there's no annual fee as there is for some shipping programs, such as Amazon.com's Prime or Sears' ShipVantage program, and there's no minimum spend as many retailers require in their promotions. However, Walmart's promotion is limited to 60,000 items in key categories. Retailers have seen how effective Amazon's Prime shipping program has been, and many