Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT will offer unlimited annual shipping services for $50 in a bid to compete with the online business of Amazon.com, Inc.'s AMZN $99 Prime service.
The Wal-Mart service will be launched later this summer in a marketing test, according to The Information, which covers the technology industry.
"It's not a bet-the-company thing, something that we think will change everything," an unidentified source told The Information.
The service will be available by invitation only for now and it will initially offer only a fraction of the more than seven million products available online from Wal-Mart, according to the Associated Press.
Wal-Mart.com was launched 15 years ago but the company has been criticized for being slow to upgrade the segment.
Wal-Mart's recent fourth quarter revenue increased 2 percent to $485.7 billion, including 22 percent growth for e-commerce sales, which totaled $12.2 billion.
Wal-Mart has recently been tinkering with its distribution network related to individual online orders.
The soon-to-launch Jet.com will match Wal-Mart's $50 membership fee, undercutting Amazon, but only offer free shipping on orders of $35 or more.
Jet, which has raised a reported $220 million, aims to compete directly with Amazon on both price and in the quantity of merchandise it offers.
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