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Amazon's minimum order size for free shipping is now $35
- hk__2 13y agoAnybody knows how much it was before?
- IBM 13y agoWhat great timing considering the other post. AMZN "buys" growth with their shipping expenses, and if they want to become profitable something has to give, and this is it. Their attempts to become more profitable will come at the expense of revenue growth.
- guruz 13y agoI wonder if their affiliate program ("Amazon Associates") is next?
- javindo 13y agoAmazon UK used to be no limit but it's now £10 limit. However, this can be bypassed slightly by adding any media item (for example CD/book/DVD). A lot of people had fun finding the cheapest piece of media, I think someone found a warehouse full of 10p cassette tapes at one point being sold by a company and handled by Amazon, thus giving people 10p shipping for orders under £10. Regardless, if you have 4 friends you can split the cost of prime up to 5 ways (yourself + 4 friends) for next day. In my experience, at least, this has worked even delivering to different addresses. You have to list them as family members, 3 of my "family" are housemates and a fourth lives down the road.
- caw 13y agoThe only downside with splitting the membership is that only the primary Prime account gets the free streaming and books for Kindle. Still a good deal though.
- dspillett 13y ago> for next day I took up the free month again this year, and have decided to keep it for the year. The finial decision point was when I realised that the free faster delivery often includes Saturday delivery, which I find more convenient than having larger and/or heavier things delivered to work.
- timsayshey 13y agoMaybe they are just trying to push more people over to prime
- gtaylor 13y agoI'm feeling even better about getting Prime now. It seems like we order stuff almost daily now instead of running to the store. We've more than paid back the $75 in free shipping less than halfway into the 12 month cycle.
- timsayshey 13y agoYeah, we've been using it for a year. We justified it by switching the $8/mo from netflix to amazon. The streaming isn't as robust but it gets the job done :)
- jorgem 13y agoDoes Amazon have a simple way to track when the $75 has paid for itself? Or did you just calculate it yourself?
- taude 13y agoThe only draw-back to having a Prime account is TOO MUCH SHOPPING. I make so many impulse one-click buys these days.
- timsayshey 13y agoLol, yeah, we did that at first but our spending with amazon has leveled out. Its mostly random household items here and there now.
- netcan 13y agoWow. Amazon must read HN. We just decided on another thread that free shipping should start at $35. Great job. ;)
- josefresco 13y agoLink?
- cm2012 13y agoOur company sells a lot on Amazon yearly - the split of sales using Prime, the $25 free shipping, or nothing is about 33% each. I wonder how that will change.
- sudomal 13y agoThere has been similar changes in their European operations some months back. Many items are no longer covered by complementary postage. Deliveries also seem to take longer to 'ship' (that might be my imagination though). I think it's all related to Prime, them trying to make a subscription service look more valuable by disabling the alternatives.
- eterm 13y agoYup, a few months back amazon uk went from "free shipping for everything" to "Ah, only if you spend £20" (I think? perhaps £25) which is how it used to be way back in the day with their "super saver" delivery. I'm amazed it actually took Amazon so long after the demise of Play.com to do this. (Play.com were a serious competitor for games/music but had a tax loophole closed on them.)
- andrewaylett 13y ago£10 now, which isn't so bad. I'll usually wind up manually combining orders to get above threshold, but sometimes it does mean that I won't order from Amazon at all.
- agamble 13y agoThe only side effect this will have is that it will push more people into buying Prime. Great comments in the other Amazon thread about how they're really playing the long game [1]. Personally, I think Prime is a serious USP for Amazon that is often overlooked. It's pretty controversial among analysts (from what I understand) with some claiming it's causing explosive growth [2] yet with others unconvinced it's sustainable [3]. Definitely a company to watch over the next 10+ years though... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6591509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6591509 [2] http://news.investors.com/technology/030513-646807-amzn-prime-memberships-will-boost-profitability.htm http://news.investors.com/technology/030513-646807-amzn-prim... [3] http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/26/prime-is-killing-amazons-profit.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/26/prime-is-ki...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- codegeek 13y agoI am amazed at how amazon remains doing business with so low margins or no profits. We love amazon at my house and being Prime members, we are almost ordering everything under the sun from Amazon that we possibly can. Here is why we love it: - The reviews are actually useful. I just bought a 70 inch TV through amazon and the critical and helpful reviews really helped me get going with settings on the TV that would have taken hours to research on google otherwise. - Shipping is superfast. Most items are delivered within a day or two with prime. - Btw, if you are a parent of a baby, then check out Amazon Mom. It is free with Prime membership and gives you further discounts if you subscribe to ordering baby stuff like formula, diapers etc. on amazon. Also we compared the prices and it is almost impossible to beat amazon for these things as well. - No need to go drive to a store. Sometimes I need to buy $10 item for which I might end up spending $2 on gas. - Easiest returns if the need arises. - Not to mention that Amazon prime gives you access to lot of great videos, movies, shows etc as a bonus. One drawback with prime is that not all items are Prime eligible. Specially what they call "add on items"
- gcb1 13y agobut their inventory sucks. way too limited. unless you count in the other sellers. i.e. stuff not marked as sold by amazon, then all that you said stop to be true. reviews means little because when bad reviews pile up, they create a new listing. shipping is weird. some stuff may be shipped from china. arduino clones. oh and that, you get arduinos clones being sold as originals. at least the returns are usually still better than the alternatives.
- asdfologist 13y agoAlso, a large portion of the reviews are fake.
- enraged_camel 13y agoNot sure why you got downvoted, because you are absolutely right. Fake Amazon reviews is actually a huge PR business.
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- xn 13y agoThe "no minimum order size" statement about Prime is a bit disingenuous. Many low-cost items are now Add-On Items (http://amzn.to/1a4NFBI http://amzn.to/1a4NFBI), meaning that Amazon will only ship them in an order of at least $25. Prime has become a bit less useful over the past year due to the introduction of Add-On Items.
- andrewvc 13y agoWell, I agree that it's somewhat less useful. There is an upside though, as shipping things has an environmental impact and people probably shouldn't be wasting a box + shipping on a missing cover for a food processor.
- res0nat0r 13y agoI don't think I've been bitten by an add-on item since they've introduced it. A food processor would definitely get you free shipping in two days via Prime, it is small items like a 6oz bottle of lotion that costs $1.99 that you can't get by itself.
- xn 13y agoYou'd think the Add-On Items would ship with any Prime-eligible order. For example, I wanted to buy a staple gun for $9.50, which will ship with Prime, but the $3.59 staples are an Add-On Item, so I can't get the staples shipped with the staple gun without adding additional items to my order.
- evandena 13y agoI agree, and there needs to be a mechanism to automatically save and ship add-on items when the conditions are met for free shipping. And to your point about attaching them to a prime order, I would have to imagine Amazon is aware of this limitation and I wouldn't be surprised if they add this feature soon.
- Lewisham 13y agoYeah, I'd also like to see them allow you to attach Add-On items with your Subscribe & Save order. Subscribe & Save exists because it's cheaper to send it all at once, right? So why can't an Add-On item be put in that box?
- swalsh 13y agoAs a prime member, I didn't even realize there was a minimum... Anyways, if I need to buy something I usually buy it on amazon both because its cheaper, but also i love seeing the box on my porch :D
- BillyMaize 13y agoThere definitely is something to getting a package to open all the time instead of going through a checkout line at the store, sometimes it feels like Christmas every week!
- bloodorange 13y agoFor some odd reason I read that as "As a prime number"...
- massysett 13y agoI've come to dislike the boxes because I then have to discard them. When I didn't have a car I just dealt with them. Now that I have a car and I go to the grocery store every week, I don't get things like toiletries or paper towels on Amazon; they are never cheaper for these things and if I get them on Amazon that's more boxes I have to move out of my house.
- specialp 13y agoWhen Amazon first introduced Prime I was able to get any of their products next day regardless of what warehouse they were in. I live in NY and occasionally some stuff would come next day air from say Arizona at probably a large loss for Amazon. Recently though they took the 3.99 next day option away from items that they do not have located in my warehouse (PA). Then the 2 day items do not ship directly from the other warehouses, they must have trucks going from KY to PA and then UPS takes final miles. Previously I would get 2 day items direct from other warehouses. So I think they are transitioning to a system where they maintain stock in every warehouse, and every warehouse is within 2 days UPS ground to everyone in USA. If you ship things to Amazon for Fulfilled by Amazon they want you to ship to at least 3 warehouses. Prime is a major reason I buy everything from Amazon. Often I can find goods at lower prices from other retailers online but the free second day shipping that is always on time cannot be beat. So this latest super saver shipping change I think is Amazon basically making shipping free due to its superior distribution system. Paying UPS for to door delivery from nearby warehouses for all these items is most likely less money than it costs stores for rent and other costs associated with brick and mortar.
- whalesalad 13y agoI abuse Amazon Prime to no end. I live in the boonies and don't have a car so they're actually my lifeline. Bought a pack of 50 machine screws the other day and including the free 2-day shipping to my door it was only $1.35. Unbelievable. But I am glad Amazon is raising prices. I don't want them to falter and hope they continue what they're doing. I'd be screwed without em.
- gleenn 13y agoNice pun.
- lisper 13y agoYou mean you'd be unscrewed ;-)
- Lost_BiomedE 13y agoThe deal is even better if you are living in Hawaii. It is not 2 day delivery, but it is fast.
- whalesalad 13y agoI used to live on Oahu and back then Amazon Prime wasn't as friendly down there, but glad to see it's caught up.
- adolgert 13y agoIs there a significant ethical difference between purchasing from a store or from a large online retailer? In one case, shipping to the store is bulk, and employees may make low wages, but they interact with other people. For a retailer Amazon's size, warehouses run on people who read orders from handheld devices and are timed for retrieval speed per box filled. Then shipping is done per parcel. How have you decided what's the right behavior to encourage with your dollars?
- blisterpeanuts 13y agoI suppose the same question could be asked about all those saddle makers and horse breeders when the age of the automobile arrived. Online retailing is a great innovation; it makes sense, it's convenient, the selection is 1000x better, the service is excellent (at least at Amazon), and it saves people having to drive somewhere. The reviews and comments are useful, the related items and "what people bought" sidebars are handy. By contrast, retailers have lost their edge. They hire low wage non-specialists, often high school students or other non-professionals who would rather be doing something else for a living. So when you go to a store to purchase a gadget or article of clothing or book, your chief human interaction experience is distressingly often with a bored, under-motivated person who hates his job and hates you too. I treasure the exceptions to the above rule, the dedicated doing-it-for-love guy or gal who really knows their stuff, like the extremely knowledgeable handyman guys and gals at the local hardware store--which is why I still patronize my local Ace whenever I can. Except they sometimes have a teenager who doesn't know where anything is, who doesn't scan my frequent buyer card, who can't offer me any advice whatsoever, who screws up the price. That kind of morbidly useless experience drives me (and millions of others) to redirect my money to smart, helpful businesses like Amazon. The way of the world, I suppose.
- adolgert 13y agoMaybe more apt a comparison would be a choice between custom-built automobiles and those from factory lines. At the time, there was fear that working in factories was dehumanizing. The ethical question is resolved politically, by having labor unions so that workers have some control. From the undercover reporting articles on Amazon's warehouses, there aren't labor unions. Amazon does provide a lot that stores don't, but now you're asking what is the outcome of your choice for yourself, not for others. There is a lot of that same focus in the comments here. Counterexamples of people who work in stores and don't enjoy their jobs are perfectly valid. I would focus, though, on what my choice of where I spend money offers as an opportunity to others. The opportunity in the warehouse depresses me. The opportunity in the store seems pretty OK. I, too, want what Amazon has to offer, and those who can pay taking what is offered them is the way of the world, but I still have to make my own choice.
- eliben 13y agoGood for them. This and the other similar change they did recently ("add on items" for Prime so that you don't end up ordering $1.5 items with free 2-day shipping) makes me believe Amazon will be more profitable and survive in the long term. I find Amazon extremely useful and love their customer support.
- akilism 13y agomy amazon prime pays for itself every year just off my dog food purchases. 30lbs bags of food dropped at my door can't beat it.
- jebblue 13y agoI tried Prime, found on my first order (as a Prime user) of several small items that none qualified for free shipping so I guess they weren't in the "15 Million items" category, yet those were the ones I needed. So I canceled. If the free shipping worked out, we would go for it and probably drop NetFlix even though they have a better choice of shows and we got hooked on their House of Cards series. We probably would keep both. Until I feel that their Prime membership will support us when we need to buy something we will remain non-members of Prime. We still spend several hundred to several thousand dollars per year, Amazon makes shopping so easy.
- phaer 13y agofun fact: The comments here read like reviews on amazon itself, suspiciously positive ;)
- blisterpeanuts 13y agoSales taxes are going to bite into their business. My state (Massachusetts) has forced them to charge sales tax starting some time later this year, and that's bound to affect sales. Tax-free New Hampshire is 45 minutes away from Boston, and I suspect that once the sales tax kicks in, all those malls and outlets up north are going to see an uptick in business. In fact, probably that's why they're squeezing the shipping now, because of this impending hit that they know they're going to take, until people become resigned to the tax.
- hyperbovine 13y agoFor a $2000 plasma, maybe. But you're going to drive 45 minutes to avoid paying $7 in taxes on a pair of shoes? I really doubt that. The scenario you outline would be true if people did a large amount of shopping once a month, but Amazon customers are now accustomed to making hundreds of little purchases throughout the year.
- blisterpeanuts 13y agoProbably you're right, and actually in the case of shoes I would patronize my local running shoe store because they're awesome people (also, most types of shoes are not taxed in Mass. so it's not the best example :). But it might alter our shopping behavior and start being more disciplined and saving up lists of stuff to get, and then the trip starts to become worthwhile. (It doesn't hurt that I have a Prius now, 50 mpg/22kpl).
- waylandsmithers 13y agoNew Hampshire's State Liquor store, just over the border, seems to enjoy tons of business from thirsty Bostonians who don't want to pay sales tax.
- klipt 13y agoShouldn't you technically be paying a use tax if you buy stuff in NH but use it in Boston? I thought that was also the logic behind requiring online stores to charge tax. http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-and-resources/tax-guides/salesuse-tax-guide.html http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-and-resour... > Example: You purchase furniture for your Massachusetts business or residence from an out-of-state firm and pay no Massachusetts sales tax. You are required to pay the 6.25 percent Massachusetts use tax. The use tax applies because the furniture was not subject to a sales tax in the other state and because it is for use in the Commonwealth.
- mcescalante 13y agoWhat was the minimum order size before? I've had Prime for a number of years and can't recall.
- BrianEatWorld 13y ago$25 was the previous threshold for "Super Saver Shipping".
- marincounty 13y agoI stopped Prime because I was buying stuff I didn't need. If someone comments under me, "Oh, I just order household items"; I guarantee this board has been sprinkled with paid commenters.
- JumpCrisscross 13y ago"This is the first time in more than a decade that Amazon has altered the minimum order for free shipping in the US." The BLS's Transportation Services urban CPI has increased 29% since August 2003, or 2.6% annually. Amazon would need to have offered the free-shipping-for-orders-over-twenty-five deal for the last 13.3 years, or since before June 2000, for this threshold increase to be on par with inflation.
- bgilroy26 13y agoInflation accounts for ~2/3 of the increase
- JumpCrisscross 13y agoAt least 72.5%. That assumes the $25 threshold was set exactly a decade ago.
- yvishyar 13y agoIn a decade it amazon has raised the minimum order by $10. Given that Amazon is a pure data driven company, we can guess this is the inflation cost which turn out to be 3.4% as per US Gov data the inflation for last decade is 2.29% I would rather believe amazon than the govt
- VLM 13y agoIts not so much a matter of belief as the gov reported inflation rate is tied to innumerable fedgov dependents via cost of living allowance raises and so forth. So the truth of the matter is the .gov is willing to pay its dependents 2.3% more, unfortunately inflation rate is somewhat higher, then again their cost of shipping is not necessarily numerically equal to the aggregate average inflation rate of every product for everyone purchased everywhere. There is the obvious data gathering issue that amazon can't signal 6 sig figs of inflation accuracy, for marketing reasons it probably had to be rounded to the nearest $5, probably rounded up.
- elwell 13y agoDon't scare me like that! I thought you meant for Amazon Prime members too.
- WalterBright 13y agoNot only is Amazon price competitive, saving the 2 hours going to the store and back is a huge deal. Amazon has eliminated about 90% of my non-food shopping.
- a3n 13y agoFor me, I wonder if that saved 90% of non-food shopping would actually be an increase in overall shopping. "Sure, I spend $90 out of $100/mo shopping at Amazon, but before I joined Prime I only spent $40 total." It's the same reason why I don't belong to Costco, it's just an encouragement to buy things that I normally couldn't be bothered to get up off my ass for.
- WalterBright 13y agoI don't shop at Costco because the long checkout lines kill any price advantage.
- blisterpeanuts 13y agoYes but don't forget all the yummy free samples! The free samples make up for the long lines (lunchtime has shorter lines anyway)