Dive Brief:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is testing an “Amazon Prime”-like $50-a-year membership-based program for free shipping for web orders of any size. The service will offer some one million products out of the seven million or so that Walmart stores sell.

• The news site The Information broke the story, saying the project is nicknamed “Tahoe” and has been delayed several times. The attempt has required the retailer to significantly revamp its software, which has hit technical snags.

• Meanwhile, Wal-Mart also announced that it will accept Alibaba’s Alipay mobile payment service in China to boost sales there. That’s in stark contrast to its rejection of Apple Pay in favor of its own yet-to-launch mobile payment system, CurrentC. 

Dive Insight:

This membership-based web commerce move is a major undertaking for Wal-Mart, which hasn’t managed to much improve its e-commerce game in recent years. The retailer says this service, in addition to allowing it to reach more customers on mobile and the web, is a way to take on Amazon Prime. But, like it or not, it will really be immediately competing with newcomer Jet.

It’s not clear when Wal-Mart knew that Jet, too, would be adopting the membership model at an almost half-off of Amazon Prime’s $99 annual fee. But it’s also hard to believe that Wal-Mart’s technology — or desire — is to have the kind of dynamic pricing that Jet is employing to allow customers to save even more money.