Walmart Is 'Moving at the Speed of a Startup'

The company announces new initiatives as e-commerce sales pick up the pace.

Author:: Edward Hardy
Publish date:: Jan 31, 2017 8:08 AM EST

Walmart (WMT) - Get Report has wasted no time in making its presence in online retail known, sending a message to online foes such as Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report .

The world's largest retailer announced a new two-day home shipping service on Tuesday. However, what was more notable was that the company will not be charging a membership fee for its services.

This move comes shortly after Walmart began testing a two-day shipping subscription service called ShippingPass that mirrors Amazon's Prime service. Subscribers of ShippingPass received free two-day shipping for $49 a year, compared to $99 for Amazon's similar service.

Walmart also lowered the minimum purchase required for free shipping to $35 from $50.

The company's initiative comes as e-commerce sales pick up the pace.

Walmart's head of U.S. e-commerce Marc Lore said, "I couldn't be more excited. We are moving at the speed of a startup."