Amazon’s (Positive) Free Shipping Policy Change

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Amazon has made a subtle change to their free shipping on orders over $35 policy (for users that don’t pay extra for Amazon Prime). Via LA Times and krutis of FW.

There are now more than triple the number of items you can use to meet Amazon’s minimum $35 order for free shipping, making it easier to fill up your shopping cart and qualify for free shipping. Find eligible offers by looking for items with “FREE Shipping” listed on the product detail page.

azfreeship

Previously, in order to get free shipping on orders over $35, they all had to be fulfilled by Amazon (meaning they are shipped out of an Amazon warehouse). Usually these products were also eligible for Amazon Prime subscribers (who could buy it without any minimum purchase size). Now, any product from any merchant that offers “FREE Shipping”, even if they ship it themselves, counts toward the $35 requirement. According to Amazon, adding these third-party folks effectively triples the number of items available.

This isn’t a huge change, as you could probably already buy those non-Amazon-warehoused items with free shipping by themselves, but it is handy to know as now combining certain things together can help you meet the $35 minimum.

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Comments

  1. So does this make Prime worth less? I originally got Prime for the streaming, but it seems like almost anything of value is also on Netflix. Thus far I have not liked any of the Prime Original series.

    • I would say it makes not getting Prime a little easier, but you still have to buy $35 of stuff every time. Those free Prime trials are really good at getting you used to just adding whatever you want in a cart and checking out. Sometimes searching for filler items to get to $35 made me feel like I was spending more money for no real reason either. Mostly, Amazon just made the free standard shipping so darn slow that it took forever to get here, so the 2-day shipping on Prime felt so much faster.

      The only thing I use Amazon Prime Instant Video for is… Sesame Street for my kid. 🙂

  2. Prime is getting to be less and less about 2 day shipping. When I first had prime, they would refund anything over 2 days in shipping. Just 2 weeks ago, I had an item on Prime shipping and it took almost a full work week to get to me. Contacting customer service was fruitless. 2-day shipping with Prime is a marketing gimmick now, one I will be sure to remember when my renewal period comes and goes without a moments hesitation. Their Prime videos are like watching old cable TV, some gems from yesteryear and a bunch of new crap not worth the time investment!

  3. Good news: The file cabinet I wanted to buy wasn’t covered for free shipping either thru Amazon Prime or $35+ minimum purchase…
    Bad news: The file cabinet is now eligible for ‘free shipping’ but price is now more than the original cost + original shipping cost combined 🙁

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