Online shoppers are benefitting from the e-commerce battle between Amazon and Walmart. Amazon has once again lowered its minimum for free shipping for non-Prime orders, from $35 to $25, undercutting Walmart’s minimum by $10. [More]
free shipping
Amazon Reduces Minimum On Free Shipping For Non-Prime Customers
By 2.21.17
Almost exactly one year after Amazon increased the free-shipping minimum on non-Prime customers from $35 to $49, the e-commerce giant has decided to revert back to the old $35 minimum. [More]
Walmart Ditching $50/Year ShippingPass For Free Two-Day Shipping
By 1.31.17
Less than a year after its national launch, Walmart is pulling the plug on its $50/year ShippingPass subscription service that was intended to compete directly with Amazon Prime. In its place, the big box retailer plans to offer free-two day shipping on millions of products with a lower minimum purchase price. [More]
Bed Bath And Beyond Wants To Wean Us Off Coupons With Membership Program
By 10.6.16
For years now, Bed Bath and Beyond has trained its shoppers to wait for one of its 20% off coupons to arrive in the mail before making a purchase. The coupons even change hands for cash. The company has long wanted to wean us off these coupons, and its latest tool to do so is a subscription discount/free shipping plan. [More]
Walmart Responds To Amazon Prime Day By Offering Free Shipping For All Orders
By 7.11.16
On the eve of Amazon’s second annual Prime Day sale, Walmart is once again trying to play spoiler. The nation’s largest retailer announced this morning that it is dropping shipping fees for all online orders this week.
[More]
Amazon Prime’s “No-Rush Shipping Credits” May Not Be Worth The Extra Wait
By 6.21.16
At $99/year — or the recently announced $10.99/month — a subscription to Amazon Prime isn’t cheap, but for people who place regular orders with the e-tail giant, the free expedited shipping may be worth the cost. Now Amazon is offering “No-Rush Shipping Credits” to Prime members willing to temporarily waive their right to what had once been the main selling point of Prime. However, a closer look at the offer raises concerns that many customers may not benefit by being more patient with their purchases. [More]
Would You Buy A Free Shipping Subscription Only For Lands’ End?
By 5.4.16
Consumers really love Amazon Prime, a subscription service that now includes a variety of other perks, but began as a humble program that got subscribers free 2-day shipping. Now other retailers have started to wonder whether they can get customers to pay up for free shipping programs with additional perks. The latest retailer to try this is Lands’ End, which has introduced their program along with a more expensive and more stylish collection of clothing. [More]
eBay Finally Working On Fix For App Glitch That Falsely Shows Free Shipping
By 4.14.16
When an eBay seller posts an item up for sale, they have the option of calculating shipping costs so that potential buyers will have a fairly accurate idea of how much their total bill will be before purchasing. But that feature is fairly worthless when the shipping costs don’t actually show up on the product page. And that’s exactly what sellers say is happening when using the company’s mobile app. [More]
Free Shipping Not Actually Zero-Cost Or Zero Effort, And FedEx Wants Retailers To Pay Their Share
By 3.17.16
We’re nearly two decades now into the e-commerce era. Shop everywhere! Shop from your phone. Shop from your tablet. Shop (during your breaks, of course) from your work computer. But all that online shopping shares one thing in common: unless 3D printers become a lot more like Star Trek‘s replicators, and a lot more affordable, all those goods ordered in the cloud have to get to actual consumers on good, old-fashioned planes, trains, and trucks. [More]
Amazon Raising Free Shipping Minimum For Non-Prime Shoppers From $35 To $49
By 2.22.16
In what would appear to be an effort to nudge more people toward paying $99 a year for the free shipping included in a Prime membership, Amazon is raising the free shipping minimum for non-Prime members from $35 to $49. [More]
Calling All Last-Minute Shoppers: Today Is “Free Shipping Day”
By 12.18.15
It sounds pretty simple — it’s Free Shipping Day today (now you know), so one might think a bunch of retailers are offering up complimentary shipping, for delivery by Christmas Eve. One would be right, because there are a lot of stores dangling that bait, though not all of them will just hand it over without a little song and dance first. [More]
Walmart Doesn’t Need Free Shipping: They Want Everyone To Use In-Store Pickup
By 10.30.15
Competing big-box stores like Target and Best Buy are trying to attract shoppers this holiday season by offering free shipping on all online purchases, no matter how small. This strategy doesn’t interest Walmart, because their plans this year for holiday domination don’t include free online shipping: they include using in-store pickup to get shoppers into their stores. [More]
Target Confirms Free Shipping For All Online Orders During The Holiday Season
By 10.30.15
As predicted, Target has gone ahead and confirmed an that it retailer would offer free shipping for all online orders during the holiday season, announcing on Thursday that it’d drop all shipping fees for the second year in a row. [More]
Report: Target Will Also Offer Free Shipping On All Online Orders Throughout The Holiday Season
By 10.23.15
Best Buy won’t be alone in offering free shipping on anything customers order online this holiday season, as Target has also apparently jumped on the special deal bandwagon: a screenshot from their leaked toy catalog shows the Minnesota-based company will offer free shipping and returns. [More]
Best Buy Offers Free Shipping For All Orders During The Entire Holiday Season
By 10.22.15
Sometimes it’s just easier to bypass the hustle and bustle of the local mall and do all your holiday shopping from the comfort of your own home. One big problem with that: the sometimes costly shipping fees. Best Buy is hoping free shipping turns into more online sales this year. [More]
Toys ‘R’ Us Brings Free Shipping Threshold Down To $19
By 9.9.15
Toys ‘R’ Us is planning ahead, and wants you to think of them when you shop for toys this holiday season. Specifically, they want you to think, “Hey, I can get free shipping from Toys ‘R’ Us if I spend more than $19, and I don’t have to buy a membership, unlike at Walmart or Amazon!” [More]
Amazon Lets Third-Party Merchants Limit Where They’ll Ship Prime Items For Free
By 8.28.15
Amazon’s Prime program includes third-party merchants, whose shops let the online Everything Store expand its inventory without building more warehouse space. While the company is experimenting with making these merchants part of the Prime program for items that already have free shipping, However, some of these merchants get to limit how far they will ship an item for free. [More]
Amazon Puts A New Limit On How & Who You Can Share Prime Benefits With
By 8.3.15
Amazon appears to be reining in the number of people who share some of their Prime member benefits with others. In a rather stealth move over the weekend, the e-commerce giant reduced the number of people that could share a Prime member’s perks from four to just one other member of their household. [More]
