Amazon increases free shipping minimum order to $49

by
in internet on (#14YNT)
Amazon.com has raised the free shipping minimum to $49 from $35 for non-Prime members, according to information provided on the Amazon website. The company hasn't published a press release with the news. For books, the threshold is still $25.

There is unlimited free two-day shipping for Prime members. "A higher minimum order requirement for free non-Prime shipping effectively increases the appeal of Prime membership, and Prime households spend disproportionately more than non-Prime households." A steep 32.8% increase in fulfillment costs had a negative impact on quarterly earnings announced on January 29. Prime membership increased 51% in 2015.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-ups-free-shipping-minimum-to-49-from-35-for-non-prime-members-2016-02-22
Reply 23 comments

errr (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-24 08:04 (#14ZA0)

why should anyone care?

Re: errr (Score: 2, Interesting)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2016-02-24 17:05 (#150YX)

Amazon wants to drive their customers to Prime - the service with a monthly fee even if you don't use it for anything for the month.

Re: errr (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-26 17:43 (#158KQ)

Prime is charged annually.

Re: errr (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-02-24 18:42 (#1519V)

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world. So, there are no doubt tens of millions of people who will care very, very much. If you're not one of them, no problem, just move on.

Re: errr (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-24 21:52 (#151Y4)

I am actually... Although I just pay for shipping.. to get the items purchased.. shipped..

Re: errr (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-25 00:24 (#1529F)

Aren't you special?

Re: errr (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-28 09:57 (#15D22)

Yes. Yes, I am. Thank you for acknowledging me.

Point of reference (Score: 1)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2016-02-25 08:55 (#1539A)

$50 happens to be the cutoff for Walmart online, too. And for quite a few other places.

The skyrocketing cost of shipping is a real problem for everybody. It really frosts me to order ten bucks worth of tea leaves or electronic parts and then have shipping to double the cost to me.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-26 20:47 (#1596V)

Fuel is at something like a 20 year low. Everything is automated and optimized out the wazoo. There's no legitimate reason for shipping costs to be rising.

This sucks a bit for me, as after several trials and 2 paid years I realized I still never order more than 2-3 times a year, don't care about 2 days versus 7 days, and never ever used Prime Video. Prime is NOT a bargain and, worse, I've noticed that many/most of the things I shop for lately are MORE expensive at Amazon, making the entire Amazon+Prime proposition nothing but a gimmick and from what I see in others it approaches Apple-y levels of cult stickiness.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-26 22:26 (#159EV)

The reason for shipping costs to rise now is profit margin. Then, when fuel prices rise, they can whine that they're losing money on shipping and increase the costs more, and the "Just World" brigade will leap to their defense, claiming that no business should lose money to its customers. People who don't track what happens will be convinced, and increased shipping costs become the norm.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-29 13:28 (#15GEE)

There's no legitimate reason for shipping costs to be rising.
US Post Office rates have gone up, I thought this was due to their new requirement to fully fund all their pensions? Or something like that? This requirement was likely caused by FedEx and other shippers lobbying the government. Just another case of companies/capitalists that really want to be monopolists -- in this case driving business away from the Post Office by forcing higher USPS rates.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 2, Interesting)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2016-03-01 00:12 (#15JK9)

Fuel is at something like a 20 year low
And labor, a much more important factor, balloons continually, year after year. Think about it. A UPS truck gets about 10-13 mpg and runs an average of 84 miles per day. Even at $4/gal that is no more than $34 per day. Now compare to 1/250 of the driver's annual salary + benefits + overhead. I can't see how that is any less than $200 per day.
I still never order more than 2-3 times a year, don't care about 2 days versus 7 days, and never ever used Prime Video. Prime is NOT a bargain
FOR YOU. Absolutely agreed. OTOH, I placed 91 orders in 2015, 'mkay? I care a lot about 2 days vs 7 days. I use Prime Video all the time. So it is a huge bargain FOR ME. Even at the new rate.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-03-01 19:36 (#15NRM)

I placed 91 orders in 2015, 'mkay? I care a lot about 2 days vs 7 days. I use Prime Video all the time. So it is a huge bargain FOR ME.
Your numbers made me curious, so I checked on mine and Amazon reports I placed 123 orders in 2015, and that's a bit lower than the previous year. All this without paying a cent for Prime, and depending on free shipping.

Of course, without a dollar figure, this isn't too revealing... One $1 item can count as an order, and Amazon often splits up a single cart into multiple orders.

I will be curious to see how the increased threshold for free shipping affects their sales this year.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 2, Informative)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-02-29 09:17 (#15FSB)

$50 happens to be the cutoff for Walmart online, too.
Walmart also offers free $0 in-store pickup on ALMOST anything you can order online. No such option with Amazon.

Target is just $25 for free shipping. Sears/Kmart is at $35. Frys.com is still $34 to get free shipping.

Of course many 3rd party sellers listed on Amazon have free shipping included in the price, with no minimum order size, but Amazon commonly sells the item much cheaper, if they have it available at all.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1)

by fnj@pipedot.org on 2016-03-01 00:19 (#15JMD)

Walmart also offers free $0 in-store pickup on ALMOST anything you can order online.
I find it nowhere near "almost everything"; also the nearest Walmart to me is over 50 miles away and I haven't driven that far in years. Finally, Walmart is closing stores and emphasizing online ordering these days.

Re: Point of reference (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-03-01 19:21 (#15NPR)

Walmart is closing stores and emphasizing online ordering these days.
Walmart is only closing 3 percent of its US locations... A tiny figure. And that's after a building boom, where they were putting new Walmarts EVERYWHERE. 66 percent of the store closures are their "smallest-format [convenience] stores called Walmart Express". Nearly all (95 percent) "of the stores set to be closed in the U.S. are within 10 miles of another Walmart." There are 4 Walmarts within just 12 miles of my location. And as I said, ordering online doesn't preclude picking up your online order in-store, for free. Not to mention the many other retailers with lower free-shipping thresholds.

I can honestly say Prime is one of the best deals out there for me. (Score: 1)

by pecosdave@pipedot.org on 2016-02-26 21:06 (#1598E)

Sure it costs quite a bit once a year - but I more than make it back. Every time I order something I'll look for "Prime Only" and verify that against stuff that may happen to have free shipping otherwise. The first year I used it I saved enough on shipping bicycle parts alone to justify its existence. Throw in the movies and TV shows I get with the Prime membership it runs the value up a lot, I generally am anti-music streaming (I'm an ogg hoarder) but I used the Prime streaming one day and actually found a new band to listen to.

If you order from them more than four to six times in a year I would say it's absolutely worth getting.

Fuck Prime and their shitty commercial (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-02-28 23:27 (#15ENK)

dancing box men

i'd be ashamed if i worked for them after watching that commercial.

Prime has me hooked (Score: 2, Interesting)

by chk6@pipedot.org on 2016-02-29 14:03 (#15GJX)

When gas prices soared to the point when I factored in travel to the store to buy stuff. Do I spend $10 in gas for a $8 part? I found Amazon Prime to be a big cost savings on items that I could wait for. We were having Amazon ship stuff because not only was the online price cheaper, we also didn't have to pay for gas. (We live 30 minutes away from the largest city and 60 minutes from large metropolitan shopping centers.) Now, even though gas prices have hit a 10 year low, we still have Prime and continue to use it. We still drive for groceries, but other non-food items all come from Amazon. From clothes to carbon gaskets. I do 100% of my holiday, anniversary, and birthday shopping through Amazon. In our household Amazon holds a brand recognition to that of Google.

Re: Prime has me hooked (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-03-23 22:12 (#1839T)

This is why shipping prices have increased by 5% and 10%. Hundreds of thousands of people ordering everything online shipping at flat rates or weight only has led to overloading the shipping network. Buying a small item results in much larger packaging. We are literally moving air around. To combat this the various companies now.charge by weight and size. So, if you send a parcel that is quite large but relatively small in weight you pay more due to the size. The Australians have been calculating postage this way for a couple of decades. The down side is that when prices increase like this they rarely decrease.

Re: Prime has me hooked (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-03-24 16:02 (#185VX)

people ordering everything online shipping at flat rates or weight only has led to overloading the shipping network.
There is no limit to "the shipping network". They can easily hire more employees, build more processing facilities, etc. You can easily see the interstates aren't so clogged with trucks that one more couldn't be added. And the decline of coal in the US has left railroads with plenty of new extra capacity they haven't been able to fill.
various companies now.charge by weight and size.
There's nothing new about that at all. "Flat rate" shipping has and always had quite a few strict restrictions on weights and sizes.
The Australians have been calculating postage this way for a couple of decades.
As have all the US shipping companies, for as long as I can recall...

Re: Prime has me hooked (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-04-03 08:02 (#195YX)

Great. We are no longer buying stuff from America. They want $550 to ship a box of stuff from the US to AU. That is almost excessive considering that the price of the items being purchased is $350. It was $300 not long ago. Even a 10% increase in cost would make this $330, but not, it is $550 now. The business I purchase from is now sending out discount dockets ever week trying to get more sales.

Now they have stepped it back (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2017-02-21 13:17 (#2DDWH)

http://fortune.com/2017/02/20/amazon-free-shipping-minimum/