The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online. Their pre-sh

The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online. Their pre-shipping profit is greater than the profit of the items in the store. Once they spend the money to ship the items, it's roughly the same. For example, let's say a widget costs $10 in Walmart stores and will cost $1 for walmart ship with their negotiated contracts. If I go to the store, I can pay $10 and buy the widget. However, if I go online, Walmart.com will say the item costs $11 with "free shipping", or I can pick it up in store for a $1 "discount" (so now I pay $10 for a "$11" item). So even though they get all the positive PR and subconscious biases associated with free shipping, they are not paying for it at all. They even pretend like you're getting a great deal by going and picking it up yourself, even though you're just paying what you otherwise would have if you skipped walmart.com entirely.