Wal-Mart aims to beat Amazon with big sale, shipping incentive

 Just one week after Amazon announced a big retail sales push with its ‘Prime Day’ event happening Wednesday, mega competitor Wal-Mart announces its response: an online sale that promises to beat Amazon.

The Wal-Mart retail move takes direct aim at Amazon’s Prime annual membership fee of $99 that is tied to Amazon’s big sale.

“We’re kicking off some awesome deals this week that will be available for everybody with no hidden costs or admission fees, and they won’t be available for just one day,” writes Wal-Mart CEO and President Fernando Madeira in a blog post Monday. “Our customers will see thousands of great deals on Rollback beginning this week along with some special atomic deals (more on that in the days to come). In addition, we’re rolling back our free shipping minimum order to $35 from $50, making it even easier for customers to save on shipping all summer long.”

He concludes his blog post with one final note: “Low prices, no hidden fees or premiums, plus savings for everyone – now that’s something we can all celebrate.”

The move comes as retailers are battling for consumer spend that is on the rise following more than a few years of decreased spending by many in the U.S. due to the recession events.

While it’s clear Wal-Mart is striving to show consumers they can save without having to pay for a membership program the retailer has been developing its own ‘Prime’ membership service that would cost $50 a year, according to a Bloombergreport. But Madeira makes no mention of that service in his Monday blog note.

“If you’ve shopped Walmart.com, you’ll know that every day is a special day where everyone has access to the same low prices we offer.  We mean everyone: you, your neighbor, your boss, your best friend … all of whom are looking for the best price on the things they want and need. We’ve heard some retailers are charging $100 to get access to a sale. But the idea of asking customers to pay extra in order to save money just doesn’t add up for us,” he writes, noting, “We’re standing up for our customers and everyone else who sees no rhyme or reason for paying a premium to save.”

Wal-Mart is hoping that a shipping cost change will also keep consumers browsing on its retail site and off of Amazon’s as its decreasing the minimum purchase for free shipping from $50 to $35.

As RetailCustomerExperience.com reported last week Amazon is celebrating its 20th birthday in big fashion  with "Prime Day" on July 15 and will offer consumers, who are Prime members, more deals than Black Friday, according to a company announcement. New deals will be cropping up every 10 minutes, kicking off at midnight. There will also be thousands of Lightning Deals, seven popular Deals of the Day, and Prime members get unlimited free shipping.

Consumers have the next week to sign up for a free trial of Prime, which will allow them access to all the deals. Check out this YouTube videoto see Amazon’s pitch.

Amazon is also holding a photo contest as part of the celebration in which photographers sharing their visual take on ‘prime living,’ have a chance to win a $10,000 gift card. Called #PrimeLiving the submitted photos let Prime members share how the service "helps enable some of their happy moments." It’s also aimed at giving Prime members a deeper look at Amazon’s Prime Photos storage offering.

Participating Prime Members sign into the service between July 6 and July 15 to share a photo on the contest page and Amazon will select and feature photos on its social channels through the week.