topic Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price in Community Chat

Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

NickNack — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:24:31 GMT

I was adding items to my cart on Amazon. They all say they're eligible for free shipping over $49. Last week I placed an order, and I'm almost positive it was free shipping over $35. I always wait until I get my minimum before I order. It's never very hard, but now it will be. I'm so disappointed. I love ordering from Amazon. I've seriously thought about joining Prime when they have their discounts but haven't done it yet.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

skuggles — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:32:49 GMT

I'm pretty happy with Prime. I love the two day shipping (when I actually get it because I don't always), and the streaming video and free monthly book selection.for me the membership fee is worth it.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Catty2 — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:33:39 GMT

Yes, it was $35. That is a big jump to $49. Maybe they are trying to interest people into joining Amazon Prime. I did the 30-day free Prime trial over the holidays to get free 2-day shipping with no minimum purchase amount.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Bird mama — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:55:09 GMT

@NickNack

Geez, thanks for the warning. I don't have Prime either.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Shelbelle — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:57:06 GMT

No Prime for me either. I remember when it was free shipping over $25. I just ordered something today and it was free shipping, no minimum required so I did not notice the change.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

nomless — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:05:57 GMT

Bummer. Bah, Amazon.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Shelbelle — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:08:29 GMT

Looks as if they are pushing everyone to have Prime.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Moonchilde — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:09:34 GMT

@Catty2 wrote:
Yes, it was $35. That is a big jump to $49. Maybe they are trying to interest people into joining Amazon Prime. I did the 30-day free Prime trial over the holidays to get free 2-day shipping with no minimum purchase amount.

Rather than "trying to interest people", I would say herding them into a corner. People still have a choice - buy from Amazon with Prime (in which you are basically paying for your shipping in advance) or pay for shipping, in which case you (and they) are now on equal footing with most other online retailers rather than having/being an advantage.

I stopped most of my routine Amazon shopping when it went to $35. For years I barely bought anything from Amazon (and survived). A few months ago I took advantage of one of the sales and bought discounted Prime partly with the aim of using the video streaming.

I have since learned that shortly, I will not be able to use it (technical issue on my end) as I'd planned. That, in combination with the fact that henceforth I'll have to pay full price for renewal, has me thinking I'm not likely to renew, though it's possible.

If I do not renew, at the $50 minimum, I might purchase 1-2 items a year rather than 6-8. Multiply me by thousands (just average occasional buyers) and I hope that's worth it to them.

They seem intent on making Amazon a strictly online version of Costco - buy our membership/our card or go home.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

jackthebear — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:14:46 GMT

Wow

S--w it

I don't order as much as I used to from them but now perhaps I will just order what I need as pay the da*n shipping

comparison to online Costco is a good one, but I get a nice rebate from them,

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

DiAnne — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:14:46 GMT

So it has gone from $25 to $35 to $49 in a very short time. I purchase items at Amazon that I could purchase elsewhere to get free shipping. Guess that will stop for me.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Moonchilde — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:15:30 GMT

@Shelbelle wrote:
Looks as if they are pushing everyone to have Prime.

Pushing is definitely the word. Trying to force, more accurately. All of their advertising for years has been with that in mind. Apparently not enough people were doing it to suit them, so they decided to play rough. They will lose customers over this, though whether those will be made up by increased Prime revenue, who knows?

Next step if this doesn't work - at some point the minimum will be $75 and Prime will be $125, then $150. Will be interesting to see what the majority tipping point is.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

jackthebear — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:21:45 GMT

@Moonchilde wrote:
@Shelbelle wrote:
Looks as if they are pushing everyone to have Prime.

Pushing is definitely the word. Trying to force, more accurately. All of their advertising for years has been with that in mind. Apparently not enough people were doing it to suit them, so they decided to play rough. They will lose customers over this, though whether those will be made up by increased Prime revenue, who knows?

Next step if this doesn't work - at some point the minimum will be $75 and Prime will be $125, then $150. Will be interesting to see what the majority tipping point is.

Agree

there is a tipping point, but there must be a point at which, as we have discussed over and over here, shipping has to be paid for somewhere.

I guess it depends on your life, I don't work or have kids, those that fall into that category probably order enough stuff to fill orders to make prime and or free shipping work for them. I don't need to order kids stuff and some of the other things I have the time to go out and look for

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

nomless — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:29:42 GMT

I read the new shipping fee policy. Eligible books (including all the ones I looked at) ship for free with orders of $25 or more and everything else in that order will ship free, too. If a lot of books are eligible for free shipping with $25 order, then it seems to be mostly non-book items that require the $49 minimum order.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Noel7 — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:26:56 GMT

I love Prime and it is so worth it even though we are a small family.

DH orders our cat food there, much cheaper and we don't have to lug it through the store. I order most of what I buy from Amazon, including nail polish. And I always give DH an armful of paperbacks for every occasion. The points really add up.

I'm going to look into their produce delivery, guaranteed fresh. I'd like that,

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

cah — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:29:59 GMT

I love my amazon prime, and it would have to go way up for me to give it up.
I saved a fortune in shipping over Christmas.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Isobel Archer — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:30:05 GMT

Amazon is the only company I have dealt with where their guaranteed shipping date actually means anything. On the rare occasions, they haven't met it, they have compensated me for the miss.

With all the uproar on the threads about sending jobs to Poland and the insistence that everyone must be paid a "living" wage - and people's insistence that they would be perfectly willing to pay higher prices to assure that, I'm surprised at the angst over this.

At least at Amazon, the service you pay for is the service you get.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

sueinsf — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:35:23 GMT

That totally stinks about that increase. I had a couple of items I was going to buy that would have qualified me for free shipping at $35 but not $49. Too bad I didn't buy them last week. I'm not interested in paying for Prime.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Nuttmeg — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:36:05 GMT

@skuggles wrote:
I'm pretty happy with Prime. I love the two day shipping (when I actually get it because I don't always), and the streaming video and free monthly book selection.for me the membership fee is worth it.

I ordered a few things on Wednesday, and received them Thursday morning by 10:00 AM. I live in a zipcode with one day shipping.

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

Moonchilde — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:36:31 GMT

@jackthebear wrote:
@Moonchilde wrote:
@Shelbelle wrote:
Looks as if they are pushing everyone to have Prime.

Pushing is definitely the word. Trying to force, more accurately. All of their advertising for years has been with that in mind. Apparently not enough people were doing it to suit them, so they decided to play rough. They will lose customers over this, though whether those will be made up by increased Prime revenue, who knows?

Next step if this doesn't work - at some point the minimum will be $75 and Prime will be $125, then $150. Will be interesting to see what the majority tipping point is.
Agree
there is a tipping point, but there must be a point at which, as we have discussed over and over here, shipping has to be paid for somewhere.

I guess it depends on your life, I don't work or have kids, those that fall into that category probably order enough stuff to fill orders to make prime and or free shipping work for them. I don't need to order kids stuff and some of the other things I have the time to go out and look for

Amazon is going to bear the brunt of the shipping cost issue over any other retailer because the entire Amazon empire was built on being cheaper (total cost, including shipping) and faster than any other company, i.e. they gave people the best bargains at the best bottom-line prices.

Once they are little to no different in bottom-line cost to other retailers AND have angered long-time loyal customers, they are no more likely to get business than any other online retailer. They will have lost their advantage and their goodwill in one fell swoop.

If I previously bought a $38 item from Amazon and that won't cut the free shipping and shipping is now $8-9, why shouldn't I buy it locally for $41? I'd still save $5 even so.

People who buy multiple items from Amazon every month with standard orders aren't going to care, but they will alienate those who are not the "Amazon ideal customer."

Re: Amazon Has Raised Its Minimum Order Price

KarenQVC — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 21:36:38 GMT

Isn't Amazon global?