2 Major Retailers Offer Free Shipping for the Holiday Season

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Best Buy and Target have brought back free shipping for the holiday shopping season, waiving their usual minimum order thresholds.

Best Buy is offering free shipping on everything from now until Dec. 25. Target is offering free shipping from now through Dec. 23.

Two details to note about Target’s offer:

  • The end date is more than a week earlier than it was last holiday shopping season, when Target waived its minimum order threshold through Jan. 1.
  • To receive your order before the holiday, you must select the “Holiday Shipping Delivery” option.

Target’s website will also offer a new service called GiftNow for the first time this holiday season, with thousands of gifts available through the service. As the retailer describes GiftNow:

“This service allows gift givers to click the GiftNow button on products on Target.com and send an e-gift box, which allows the recipient to accept the gift, change the color or size, or choose something entirely different, all before anything ships.”

Best Buy also announced that it has expanded its same-day delivery service. It’s now available in more than 40 metropolitan areas, with the most recently added areas being:

  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Indianapolis
  • Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Milwaukee
  • New Orleans
  • Oklahoma City
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Salt Lake City
  • St. Louis

The service allows you to place an order as late as 3 p.m. and receive it by 9 p.m. the same day except on Sundays, when the deadlines are one hour earlier. Same-day delivery will cost you $5.99, though, so don’t wait until the last minute if you can help it.

Free Shipping Day 2017

No matter where you plan to shop this holiday season, mark your calendar for Dec. 15. That’s Free Shipping Day, the one day of the year when hundreds of retailers offer free shipping with no minimum purchase requirement — with delivery by Christmas Day.

The Free Shipping Day website has yet to specify any retailers that will participate in the “holiday” this year. Last year, the website did not reveal all of the participating retailers until 12:01 a.m. on Free Shipping Day.

Other ways to land free shipping

Taking advantage of Best Buy’s and Target’s holiday shipping offers and Free Shipping Day are hardly the only ways to score free freight.

Two retail giants, Walmart and Amazon, lowered their thresholds for free shipping earlier this year. So, you can now qualify for free shipping if you spend $35.

Of course, if you have an Amazon Prime or Prime Student membership, shipping is free year-round with no minimum order threshold. If you prefer, you can sign up for a free trial to use these services during the holidays. To learn more about the perks of Prime, check out “8 Major Freebies and Discounts You Get With Amazon Prime.”

A couple dozen retailers also offer free shipping with no minimum order threshold year-round, as we detail in “33 Retailers With Free Shipping — No Matter How Little You Spend.”

For several more options, check out “5 Easy Ways to Get Free Shipping.”

How do you usually land free shipping? Let us know by commenting below or over on our Facebook page.

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