Amazon has quietly lowered the minimum order amount to qualify for free shipping so you no longer have to spend as much to avoid shipping fees.
They’ve lowered the free shipping threshold to $35. Last year they raised it to $49 but now they are going back to $35 like it was before.
The free shipping threshold remains at $25 for books so that stays the same.
The change likely has something to do with Walmart recently introducing free 2-day shipping on orders of $35 and up.
Amazon can’t match that but they can try to make things more competitive.
As someone who doesn’t use Amazon Prime, I think this is a smart move on Amazon’s part. When you just want to order a few small items trying get up to $50 is a nuisance that ends up taking a half hour of your time trying to hunt down something else to avoid paying extra for slow shipping. $35 is a lot more tolerable.
On a side note, some websites like CNET have things confused and are saying that Amazon has lowered the price to $35 for free “two-day” shipping but they obviously don’t know what they are talking about or Amazon Prime wouldn’t exist.
Leave a Reply