Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will remain an Internet retail powerhouse for the foreseeable future. However, the Seattle-based outfit is no longer willing to let its millions of customers get free shipping on orders of $25 or more. Whether it’s no longer tenable, or whether Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is interested in seeing more people sign up for its Amazon Prime service, the retailer announced today that in order for customers to qualify for free shipping they will need to spend $35.
In a posting on its website today Amazon said the following to its customers:
Amazon’s minimum order size for free shipping has changed to $35. This is the first time in more than a decade that Amazon has altered the minimum order for free shipping in the US. During that time, we have expanded free shipping selection by millions of items across all 40 product categories. Look for “FREE Shipping” on product pages to discover eligible items.
With prices being what they are in the United States, the announcement was, quite frankly, overdue. It’s not a big ask for the retailer to demand an extra $10 in shopping to qualify for Super Saver shipping.
Amazon has made a few changes to its website
In addition to raising the free shipping minimum, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has made a few changes to its website to make this transition easy for its customers to qualify for free shipping despite the spending increase that remained in place for over a decade. The website will now keep a running total of the items in your cart from each page of its website. Customers won’t have to check their cart to determine whether or not they’ve qualified for free shipping.
In the second part of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s website post they point out the popularity of both Amazon and Amazon Prime.
Amazon customers have already made the choice
Millions of Amazon customers have already made the choice of faster shipping by becoming Amazon Prime members. Prime includes unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping, with no minimum order size, on more than 15 million items, as well as unlimited streaming of over 41,000 movies and TV episodes through Prime Instant Video and access to over 350,000 books to borrow through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The service is so popular that more than a year ago we began shipping more items with Prime than with free shipping. Click here to start a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime costs $79 per year and offers unlimited free two-day shipping on all products while offering streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV Shows. Essentially, Amazon Prime costs less than a year of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and includes two-day shipping on millions of items.
