In a bid to counteract Walmart’s aggressive tactics, Amazon has announced that it is dropping the price requirement for free shipping to $25. In comparison, Walmart offers free two day shipping on orders under $25 with membership not a prerequisite.
Amazon’s free shipping offer extends to non-prime members. Prime members after all, are like sort of the Amazon royalty and as such, are above worry about petty things like delivery charges and so on. Prime members receive access to free 2-day shipping on over 50 million items along with free movies, music, Kindle books and unlimited picture storage and more.
Indeed, it was to encourage people towards its prime membership that Amazon went with a fairly high free shipping minimum price of $49. Amazon reasoned that this way, people could be tempted into opting for the monthly subscription model and availing other benefits besides saving bucks they would otherwise spend on shipping.
It was a good plan and may have succeeded but its impact was lessened by the fact that Walmart, one of Amazon’s biggest rivals, rolled out free shipping on orders below $35. Now, people had the option of paying around the same price and then additional money for shipping — unless they were a prime member – on Amazon or paying roughly the same price and no shipping on Walmart.
Which could be why Amazon also dropped its minimum requirement to $35 in February. The company has now announced a further $10 drop and you can avail free shipping providing your order value is equal to or above $34 from Amazon — even if you are not a Prime member. Meanwhile, other players are being affected as well. Target for instance, has raised its minimum free shipping from $25 to $35 — which is sort of strange.
This puts Amazon has the company offering the lowest minimum for free delivery among all the three main companies. The new minimum price has been set into motion sometime last week although the exact time is unknown. Amazon still needs to worry about Walmart’s two day shipping though, wherein you receive whatever you order in 2-days. To avail the sme facility through Amazon, you need to have a prime subscription.
