4 ms·

I'm not that old, and I remember when you had to pay for any level of shipping.

by douche 11y ago

detaro 11y ago
If you compare Amazon with Prime to Amazon without and don't care about the speed, you only save on shipping if you often order <30 €. So Amazon has that benefit over many other stores even if you do not pay for Prime. Shipping prices generally are interesting. I get that shipping isn't free, but often enough there really would be potential to optimize. E.g. Amazon ships what they can in small cardboard envelopes (stuff like USB drives, small cables, electronic parts, that kind of thing). Efficient and fast. Other sellers want 4.99 € shipping for that. Which, if I' buying stuff for 15-25 €, is a notable percentage of the price. (And yes, if you send me a big shipping box in which I have to dig through the packaging chips to find the product, then you probably paid close to that for shipping, but that really wasn't necessary) Or the one that also has stores, where you can either pay 5.99 € shipping or do store pickup. And I'm thinking "eh, the price is a bit cheaper than everywhere else, but they want more shipping. BUT I can easily pick it up myself and maybe even get it a bit quicker.". Change the shipping method, and discover that it now charges me no shipping, but increased the product price by 5.99 €. And which point I ordered somewhere else, didn't go to their (big, probably expensive) store and didn't have a chance to be tempted to buy some additional stuff there.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  > (And yes, if you send me a big shipping box in which I have to dig through the packaging chips to find the product, then you probably paid close to that for shipping, but that really wasn't necessary) // At work I often ship ceramics [in the UK] - none of the couriers will insure it, the reason I'm told is that they all use overhead conveyors and so all parcels have to survive a 2m fall. Perhaps that's part of the reason for "overpacking". Another could be that it's observer bias; occasionally they run out of smaller boxes and so use a large one (necessitating lots of filler) and these occurrences get reported.
natch 11y ago
Maybe they were A/B testing and you fell into a test group, because I've been using Amazon since very near the beginning and they have always had a free shipping option with no Prime needed. Or I'm going crazy, also a possibility ;-).

I'm not that old, and I remember when you had to pay for any level of shipping.

by douche 11y ago

I'm not that old, and I remember when you had to pay for any level of shipping.

If you compare Amazon with Prime to Amazon without and don't care about the speed, you only save on shipping if you often order <30 €. So Amazon has that benefit over many other stores even if you do not pay for Prime. Shipping prices generally are interesting. I get that shipping isn't free, but often enough there really would be potential to optimize. E.g. Amazon ships what they can in small cardboard envelopes (stuff like USB drives, small cables, electronic parts, that kind of thing). Efficient and fast. Other sellers want 4.99 € shipping for that. Which, if I' buying stuff for 15-25 €, is a notable percentage of the price. (And yes, if you send me a big shipping box in which I have to dig through the packaging chips to find the product, then you probably paid close to that for shipping, but that really wasn't necessary) Or the one that also has stores, where you can either pay 5.99 € shipping or do store pickup. And I'm thinking "eh, the price is a bit cheaper than everywhere else, but they want more shipping. BUT I can easily pick it up myself and maybe even get it a bit quicker.". Change the shipping method, and discover that it now charges me no shipping, but increased the product price by 5.99 €. And which point I ordered somewhere else, didn't go to their (big, probably expensive) store and didn't have a chance to be tempted to buy some additional stuff there.

pbhjpbhj 11y ago
> (And yes, if you send me a big shipping box in which I have to dig through the packaging chips to find the product, then you probably paid close to that for shipping, but that really wasn't necessary) // At work I often ship ceramics [in the UK] - none of the couriers will insure it, the reason I'm told is that they all use overhead conveyors and so all parcels have to survive a 2m fall. Perhaps that's part of the reason for "overpacking". Another could be that it's observer bias; occasionally they run out of smaller boxes and so use a large one (necessitating lots of filler) and these occurrences get reported.

natch 11y ago

Maybe they were A/B testing and you fell into a test group, because I've been using Amazon since very near the beginning and they have always had a free shipping option with no Prime needed. Or I'm going crazy, also a possibility ;-).