Amazon is increasing the free shipping minimum to $35 for customers who don’t have a Prime membership in some regions, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. Until now, the minimum for free shipping was $25. Amazon says it’s testing the new free shipping limit randomly by regions grouped by zip code and that everyone in the same area will see the same free shipping limit. The news was first published by CNBC.
“We are constantly evaluating our offerings and making adjustments based on those evaluations,” an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email. “We’re currently testing a $35 minimum for non-Prime customers to qualify for free shipping. Prime members continue to enjoy free delivery on over 300 million items, with tens of millions of items available for free or one-day delivery.”
The company is looking to push more customers towards the Prime offering with this new change. This change does not affect Prime members, who pay $139 per year or $15 per month for free shipping and other membership perks.
It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Amazon has changed its free shipping limit, increasing the minimum to $49 from $35 in 2016, and then bringing it back to $35 in 2017. The company later lowered the price point to $25. to undercut Walmart, which has a $35 minimum free shipping for customers who aren’t Walmart+ subscribers. The new change brings Amazon in line with Walmart’s offerings.
And by increasing the free shipping threshold, the company is working to reduce costs, which is something the company has been looking to do across its business.
Amazon 27,000 jobs were abolished This year it has frozen hiring in companies. The company also began charging delivery fees for fresh grocery orders under $150, removing a feature that gave Prime members free delivery on orders over $35. In addition, Amazon has terminated AmazonSmile, a donation program that redirects 0.5% of the cost of all eligible products toward charities.