Best Buy wants your business this holiday season. They want your business so bad that they will cover the cost of shipping on most of the items they sell. CDs, DVDs, AV equipment — the vast majority of the online store now ships for free. Of course in-store pickup is still available at no charge as well with the free shipping offer valid through December 21. Note, free shipping does not apply to notebooks, netbooks, iPads, iPods, game hardware, Dynex TVs, appliances, and “some other items.” The fun question here is whether Walmart forced Best Buy into this free shipping game.
It was just last week that Walmart unveiled its free shipping campaign that seems to have a lot less restrictions. The NYT times pointed out in the announcement story that when the big boys start offering free services such as shipping, it’s going to be harder for smaller e-commerce sites to keep pace. Consumers are going to get spoiled and expect this sort of thing more often.