Walmart.com takes on Amazon this holiday season

Walmart.com unveils Cyber WEEK and lowers free shipping minimum to $35

Amazon and Walmart are not BFFs. Maybe they once were and then Amazon stole Walmart’s boyfriend and Walmart was all “hell naw, bitch!” and kicked all the Kindles out of its stores.

Something like that.

Now Walmart—specifically Walmart.com—is going head-to-head with Amazon this holiday season. The company unveiled its Cyber Monday strategy late Thursday, which includes price matching and free shipping on orders of $35 or more, which has been reduced from $50—and happens to be the same minimum purchase price Amazon requires for free shipping. Amazon raised its minimum free shipping order to $35 from $25 in October.

Walmart.com CEO Joel Anderson said in a conference call with reporters that the change has nothing to do with Amazon and everything to do with customer satisfaction.

Of course, things have been tense between Walmart and Amazon ever since Amazon began its showrooming promotions, encouraging customers to check out products in brick-and-mortar stores and then purchasing them on Amazon. In response, Walmart and Target kicked all the Kindles out of their stores.

Anderson said that last year, Cyber Monday was the highest grossing online day in Walmart’s history. It also happened to be the highest grossing online day in the Internet’s history. Consumers spent a total of $1.46 billion online, setting a new record for the most money spent online in a single day—ever. That’s up 17% over the previous year, when consumers spent $1.25 billion online on Cyber Monday.

So Walmart thought, if Cyber Monday draws so many online shoppers…why not just turn Cyber Monday into Cyber Week? It’s f*cking brilliant! Johnson, give yourself a promotion and go home and kiss your wife! Tell her you’ll be eating roast beef for dinner every night from now on!

Yes, Walmart.com is actually calling it Cyber Week, and naturally, Cyber Week starts this Saturday—which is more like Cyber Week-And-a-Half. Thought you were going to spend time with your family and be thankful for your first world comforts? Think again. This couple is way ahead of the game.

Of course, Walmart, Kohl’s, Target, and every other big box store is being criticized this year for starting their Black Friday sales on Thursday, forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Neilsen is forecasting smaller Black Friday crowds this year. According to a survey, only 13% of respondents plan to be out shopping Black Friday sales this year, which is down from 17% last year. Cyber Monday shoppers, however, are going to be out in full force: 46% of respondents said they plan to shop online on Cyber Monday, which is up from 30% last year.

The news came as Target and Walmart both fell short of Wall Street’s expectations in their third quarter earnings. Walmart posted revenue of $115.69 billion, which is up by $1.76 billion year-over-year, but Wall Street was expecting $116.84 billion. Walmart also cut its full year EPS guidance to $5.11-$5.21, from $5.10-$5.30.