Amazon Quietly Lowered Its Free Shipping Minimum to $35 (fortune.com)

Retailers have been busy over the weekend with Presidents Day promotions and sales, but Amazon had a significant surprise discount of its own. From a report: In a blink-and-miss-it move, the online retail giant quietly reduced its free shipping minimum rate to $35. The change was picked up and reported by a number of news outlets over the weekend, and was spotted by Fortune as well during the online checkout process. Amazon confirmed the change on its shipping guidelines and options page, designating which items and regions for delivery are eligible for free shipping. Amazon's free shipping rate, arguably one of the promotions on the site that has been the most popular and vaulted it to its e-commerce throne in years past, has gone up and down over the years. The free shipping minimum has been as low as $25 in the past and was most recently as high as $49.

Comments

And, I might start buying more from them again.

[Oswald McWeany]

When free shipping went up to $49, I stopped buying as much from them. I might use them more again now, $35 was easy to pad a purchase to reach- $49 isn't.

Good call Amazon!

Re:And, I might start buying more from them again.

[wbr1]

Do you drive 20 miles to go pick up a $3 jug of milk? Probably not, but if you have a larger list, it may be worthwhile to drive to a more distant store. Most add-on items are similar. Under $10 (most under $5). It is just not feasible to ship that for free by it self. The handling costs and even the deeply discounted shipping costs Amazon recieves would eat mor than the profit on an item that small.

It is not that hard to add items like that to your cart or a wishlist, then buy them all at once or on a larger order. All it takes is a little planning. Otherwise, local stores are good for impulse buys.

Caveat - I run an amazon 3rd party seller business.

Re:And, I might start buying more from them again.

[John.Banister]

I buy power tools almost exclusively from Amazon. I don't expect amazing discounts, but I like the German ones, and Amazon is my only reliable source for them.

Re:And, I might start buying more from them again.

[demonlapin]

I don't shop at Amazon because it's cheaper - it's usually not much, if any. But it's much less work for me. Get online, check inventory, make sure it's in stock, drive twenty minutes each way, hunt for the item while in the store, wait in checkout line... if I don't need it right now, I can get online, click "place order", and it appears on my doorstep two days later. Huge time-saver for me, as my work is intermittent - I have lots of three-to-five-minute idle periods, which means I can get personal stuff done during the day, instead of wasting that time and having to invest even more after work.

what a coincidence!

[Thud457]

Walmart's started advertising free two-day shipping with no membership required.

Not that you should be buying cheap crap from China from Walmart. For that, go to Harbor Freight.

Ridiculous Slashdot story

[Bryan Ischo]

This is one of the lamest Slashdot articles I have ever seen. In what way is this at all news for nerds? And in what way is this any more news worthy than 10,000 other random news items of day? What about if Walmart has a one-day sale on Nintendo games. Should we get a Slashdot headline article for that?

msmash is not a competent Slashdot editor. I'm going to give Slashdot some feedback here.

Re:Ridiculous Slashdot story

[downright]

Amazon Quietly Lowered Its Free Shipping Minimum (for Star Trek shit) to $35

  problem solved. :-)

The decline in online stores

[MobyDisk]

I see a bit of a decline in online stores coming soon, not limited just to Amazon, because they have pushed the consumer too far. Here is why:

1. They are selling too much low-quality crud:
There are classes of items I can no longer buy online, because I have a 50/50 chance of getting a product other than what I actually ordered. Many e-commerce sites are copying the Amazon model of putting items on their sites, even if they aren't products the company sells directly. I can't buy USB cables, batteries, flash memory cards, or really any OEM parts online any longer. Even if the Amazon or Newegg store says it is an actual Samsung product, odds are good that I will actually get is a rip-off. I bought a rustproof aluminum part from Lowes, only to find it was actually iron so it rusted out. Now I find the same phony part at Sears.com. But it isn't actually a Sears product and it isn't in their stores.

2. They are no longer the cheapest deal in town
Several years ago I just went to Amazon for anything and everything, and just assumed it was the cheapest. That's no longer true. Even without shipping, I can usually find the item cheaper somewhere else. I'm even finding retail stores are competing positively on price. Now, this isn't true for electronics by any means, but see point #1 above. I'd rather pay $50 for 4000mAh a OEM battery at BestBuy than $10 for a clone that's 2500mAh but says 4000mAh on the case.

3. No longer tax-free
The tax-free days are over.

4. Shipping costs
Shipping costs are increasing.

I don't want free shipping

[The Cisco Kid]

Its not really free, you're still paying for it - The cost is just built into the product prices.

I want to PAY the market cost, for MY CHOICE of shipping method and carrier.

And I want to be able to specify that choice, and verify the pricing, BEFORE I enter a credit card number or any other financial info, and even without having to "log in" first. And I definitely don't want my card number stored from one purchase to the next, partly because I use disposable numbers, but also because for EACH PURCHASE I want positive control over the transaction. Its the same reason I keep my wallet in my pocket until the cashier has rung up my total at a brick&mortar.

When Amazon offers that, then it will be news worth reading.

Not so hot for international shipping

[ukoda]

Sounds like good news if you live in the USA but Amazon are still at a disadvantage for international shipping. I can get stuff shipped from China to New Zealand for free, even stuff costing a couple of dollars but anything I get shipped from Amazon is really expensive, if they will even ship outside the USA, most don't. As a result I usually try to buy from China first and only try Amazon if what I want can't be source from China.

From what I have heard the Chinese government is effectively subsidising the shipping costs in many cases and that is probably the core reason US suppliers can not compete. From a consumer point of view the only downside is that it is very slow to arrive, but then again Amazon's cheapest shipping options are just as slow.

Re:Not so hot for international shipping

[LostInTaiwan]

Sorry to break the news to you. US tax payers, like you and me, are subsidizing the packages shipped via the postal service from China :(

http://fortune.com/2015/07/03/...

One of the core reasons why US manufacturer's can't complete is that our tax policy favors gains from the speculative market, ie real estate and stock market, over the actual manufacturing of products. Another core reason is that the American consumers simply wants cheap products made in an authoritarian country that is actively competing with us militarily and economically, with the goal of becoming the dominate power in the world.

At the end, we only have ourselves to blame. We voted for the politicians who set fiscal policies that decimated our manufacturing base, and we simply like to buy cheap crap from China.

Keep this up, and China will bankrupt us in the coming arms/space race, much like how we did it to the USSR.

Re:Nice.

[daver!west!fmc]

A big chunk of the shipping price for used items is passed along to the seller as a "shipping allowance" that may cover the cost of shipping the product. For CDs and DVDs sent as Media Mail within the US, it probably does. For books, it's less certain. Anyway, reduce that price, Amazon will reduce the shipping allowance, and sellers will remove a lot of their low-priced inventory from Amazon.

Jet.com is gunning for them

[rsilvergun]

they're an eCommerce outfit formed by an ex-amazon guy. Got a lot of capital so they can spend a few years trying to beat Amazon at it's own game of loss leading and .0001% profit margins. It'd be nice if somebody managed to compete with Amazon. I'm not looking forward to a time when they're literally the only retailer in the world.

Re:Jet.com is gunning for them

[blindseer]

I'm seeing more and more competition from Amazon every day from brick and mortar stores improving their on-line presence. Amazon is great but in many cases I either want to see what I'm buying before I get it (think clothing and other items where how it looks is just as important as function) or, more likely, I want something right away and I can order something on-line to pick it up at a local store.

What I can do is shop online for something at home and then if I decide to buy then I can drive to the store to pick it up. If I decide I need to see how it looks in real life first before I buy then I can see if the item I want is in stock before I drive out to the store.

What is interesting is that even a local grocery chain is getting in on this. They offer home delivery on purchases now. If you buy over a certain amount they'll deliver for free. Amazon has been in on this market for a while, selling things like diapers and laundry detergent. What I see now is the grocery store getting in on this while also offering perishables for delivery. People might buy laundry detergent from Amazon but they aren't going to get ice cream from them any time soon.

I like Amazon and I'd buy from them again. What I find myself doing though is shopping on many other websites to compare prices, see who has something in stock, etc. Around here Best Buy had something of a captive market on electronics and their prices reflected that. Recently though they've had to compete with the likes of Amazon and, again, their pricing shows this. I've actually avoided Best Buy for a long time knowing I'd likely get ripped off. I've found myself shopping there again now that I can order on-line and pick up in the store. I will sometimes see a small premium in price for this convenience and I'll pay it if the convenience matches the price difference.

I guess one could say the price premium at Best Buy was always the cost of convenience since the nearest competition in a brick and mortar store meant an hour of driving. Calling someone on the phone to buy something and having it delivered in a couple days existed since there were telephones. What has changed though is that phones now fit in a pocket, and delivery times got shorter. This meant that brick and mortar stores have had to improve their online presence or go out of business, and online stores have to find a way to leverage this new speed in delivery to keep up.

If you aren't seeing this competition against Amazon then I suspect you are looking in the wrong places for it.

Re: Nice.

[corychristison]

There is way less fraud on Amazon. Don't get me wrong, it's still there, but much less prevalent compared to eBay.

Personally I pay for Prime and it's well worth it for me. If you stick to Prime eligible products, you don't have to deal with the fraud as you're dealing with Amazon and not a third party.

Re: Nice.

[corychristison]

I live in a smallish town in Saskatchewan, Canada. All of the small shops closed up shortly after Walmart moved in 17ish years ago. I find Amazon to be the lesser of the two evils in this situation. Plus Amazon has a much bigger selection than the local Walmart, and I'm not really willing to drive an hour away to buy stuff in the next town over unless I desperately need something that day.

With that said, I do my best to support the local businesses I can. I buy meat from the local butcher, eggs and other produce from local farmers market, go to the smaller independent grocery store over the big box chain, pet food and supplies from the local pet store, etc.

Re: Nice.

[BenFranske]

If you stick to Prime eligible products, you don't have to deal with the fraud as you're dealing with Amazon and not a third party.

Depends how you define "dealing with" Amazon is not always the seller, they are increasingly a logistics/fulfillment company and not the seller. While it being Prime does mean they have the product in one of their warehouses it absolutely does not mean you are buying it from Amazon. In many cases they are just warehousing products for someone else and they send you the product which has been barcoded by the actual seller when you purchase it. If you have a problem with the product you might soon learn that it isn't Amazon you bought it from, prime or not.