As the 2017 holiday shopping season starts to pick up speed, a number of major retailers have already released their free shipping offers.
These deals have become crucial, because they level the playing field with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). The online retailer has 90 million Prime members who pay $99 a year, or $10.99 a month, to get two-day shipping for no added cost, according to a recent report. In terms of shipping speed and cost, Amazon Prime has set the new benchmark for retailers, and failing to meet that standard can greatly curtail a seller's pool of customers.
Of course, offering free shipping with no minimum purchase amount (as Amazon does with Prime) gets expensive. That's why the biggest retailers have all come up with different deals. Here are some of the shipping deals on offer as Christmas grows near.
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