Best Buy renews holiday free shipping offer

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. will repeat its policy of offering free shipping for all online orders during the holiday peak sales season, ratcheting up the ruthless competition for consumers' online shopping dollars.

Between Oct. 23 and Dec. 24, Minneapolis-based Best Buy will waive its usual $35 threshold needed for orders to qualify for free shipping. That means the offer will end about a week earlier than last year's policy, although many items in the consumer electronics retailer's catalog of televisions, laptops, and smartphones will qualify for the minimum order threshold anyway.

Under the 2016 holiday shipping strategy, Best Buy calls the policy "Free shipping on everything, all season long" but notes that the offer does not include: special-order delivery items, some scheduled delivery items, and items listed as "in store only" or "check stores."

Best Buy has been investing in same-day delivery in recent months as it fends off a threat from e-commerce giant Amazon.com. In April, Best Buy announced it would add 11 U.S. markets to its same-day delivery partnership with Deliv, a firm that uses an assortment of drivers to provide last-mile deliveries.