Walmart Shipping 9 Things You Should Know (Explained)

What is Walmart shipping?

Walmart does not have its own logistics company so Walmart uses 3rd party carriers such as USPS or FedEx to deliver its packages. You typically receive small items within 2 days. It takes 1~5 day to ship bulk items to you.

Walmart from Bentonville, USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1, What shipping companies does Walmart use?

Two major shipping companies that Walmart uses are USPS and FedEx. Unlike amazon have its own logistics company and fleet, Walmart uses 3rd party carriers to deliver their packages

2, Shipping methods of Walmart

Walmart provides next-day delivery, express delivery, standard delivery, and free delivery

Next day delivery

This is the fastest delivery option that Walmart offers. You do not need to be a member to get next-day delivery, but your minimum purchase order amount has to be equal to or over $35 plus on eligible items.

The items in your cart must label” next day eligible” otherwise you cannot get next-day delivery even if your order is over $35.

Next-day delivery is only available on qualified zip code

Walmart normally uses FedEx to ship next-day delivery items

Two-day delivery

Walmart provides two-day delivery on the majority of online items. To be qualified for two-day delivery, your order has to be $35 or more. If your purchase is less than $35, you can upgrade to two-day shipping for $5.99.

You must place your order by 2 pm in the time zone of destination, enabling your order received within 2 business days. Two-day delivery only counts business days.

Keep in mind that weekends and holidays don’t count as business days for shipping. If you order on Friday, you will not get your items till Wednesday.

A two-day delivery program is available in mainland the US. States, such as Hawaii and Alaska aren’t eligible for the free 2-Day Shipping program.

Pick up today

As long as the item is eligible to pick up in store, you can pick up your item with free shipping

Standard delivery

Walmart offers free standard delivery on orders of $35 or more. if your order is less than this amount, you will be charged a $5.99 minimum order charge.

Market place

Marketplace items are not available for next-day delivery. You can choose any one of the five shipping options, each shipping option has a different shipping cost.

  • Value
  • Standard
  • Expedited
  • Next day
  • Freight shipping

Freight

Freight means the item you purchased is big and in bulk. Freight items are not available for next-day delivery. Freight shipping cost is decided by the shipper. You need to check with the shipper on the exact shipping charge and shipping method.

3, Walmart shipping status

Acknowledge of order

Walmart will send you an email to thank you for your order and inform you of the estimated arrival date of your item in the email. There is also a tracking link to track your order.

Most of the time you can not find your order information through tracking at this time, because your order has not shipped out yet. It takes 24-48 hours for the tracking system to show your order after shipping.

Prepare order

Walmart is working on your order. Your order has not shipped out yet.

Order shipped

Walmart has shipped your order out, your order is on the way. You can actually track your shipment on the tracking link that walmart provided

Order delivered

Order delivered and your shipment is completed

4, How long does Walmart take to ship?

It depends on which shipping method you choose, it can take 1-5 days to ship the item to you. if the item you ordered is out of stock, it is going to take much longer for Walmart to backorder your product then ship it out to you.

Also Read:

5, Does Walmart charge shipping?

Two-day shipping and standard shipping are both free if your order is $35 or more

If your order is less than $35, You will be charged a $5.99 minimum order fee to qualify as a free two-day shipping

Besides shipping costs, there is an extra surcharge if you live outside of the main 48 states, such as Alaska, and Hawaii. The extra surcharge is to cover the increased cost of shipping.

6, How to get Walmart free shipping?

There are 3 ways to get free shipping from Walmart: order is $35 or more, pick up at the store, and Walmart membership

To qualify for Walmart free shipping, your order must be $35 or more. otherwise, you will be charged a $5.99 minimum order fee, the same as the shipping charge just use another name.

Once purchase online, you pick up your items at the store, then you also get free shipping

You can consider Walmart plus membership if you are a regular shopper on walmart.com. As a Walmart plus member, you will get free two-day shipping on any eligible items. Walmart plus membership costs $12.95/per month and $98/per year. Walmart also offers 30 day free trial for this membership.

7, How much should you tip for Walmart grocery delivery?

It is your decision on how much to tip a deliverer. Most deliverers expect to be tipped around 15% or so of the order if they get to your place in a reasonable time frame. if the service is particularly good, or your order is large, it is fair to tip more. More people tend to tip $5 on several bags grocery, and $10 for a whole month’s groceries.

Walmart uses doordash to deliver its grocery to customers. You can tip in cash or online.

And of course, it’s also your right to give nothing, if the driver is rude or seriously messes up the order.

8, Walmart Marketplace

Walmart marketplace is a platform to sell your product on walmart.com. There is only one fee you need to pay that’s called a referral fee or commission if you are successfully selling a product through the Walmart platform. Referral fees are calculated based on product category, so different products have different referral fees.

Many people believe that selling on the Walmart marketplace is much cheap than selling on amzon.com. Walmart only charges sellers one referral fee roughly 15% of the gross sales, but Amazon charges sellers a monthly fee and a closing fee.

According to Walmart marketplace, nearly 120 million monthly visitors flooded into their walmart.com. Out of the millions of shoppers, 99% of them make at least one online purchase per month and 20% make at least one online purchase per day. Based on bigcommerce.com statistics each month more than 197 million people around the world visit amazon.com. that’s more than the entire population of Russia. Amazon has 77 million more visitors than Walmart per month, no wonder Amazon is the top e-commerce platform in the US.

9, Walmart goLocal program

Walmart goLocal is the last-mile delivery service that Walmart provided to local businesses small or big. Walmart goLocal creates an alternative revenue stream for Walmart.

goLocal is Walmart’s innovation program, to best utilize its network of 4743 stores around the US to deliver products at a competitive price. This is how this program works. Once you join the local program, your eCommerce website is integrated with Walmart goLocal. As soon as an order is placed on your website, your website will inform Walmart, then Walmart will send a driver to pick up and deliver your item to your customers.

It is very interesting to see how Walmart going to differentiate its local from USPS or FedEx. Seems Walmart goLocal is doing pretty well so far, because they have already won big orders from home depot, and Chico’s.

Resources:

https://sellerhelp.walmart.com/seller/s/guide?article=000006011

https://www.statista.com/statistics/714568/web-visits-to-walmartcom/

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2021/08/24/walmart-launches-walmart-golocal-a-new-delivery-as-a-service-business