Amazon has been quietly raising the amount some customers must spend on its site to get free shipping.
To qualify for no-cost deliveries, some Amazon customers who
don’t have Prime memberships now need to spend $35, up from $25 previously.
Amazon spokesperson Kristina Pressentin confirmed the
company is testing the new qualification, which was first reported by the blog
eCommerce Bytes. The change doesn’t impact Prime members who pay $14.99 per
month, or $139 a year, for free shipping and other perks.
“We continually evaluate our offerings and make adjustments
based on those assessments,” Pressentin said.
For now, the new $35 minimum seems to apply to customers
based on where they live, the consumer education website Consumer World said
Monday. Among other cities, it noted Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered,
has a $25 minimum, while non-Prime customers in nearby Bellevue have to pay $35
for free shipping.
The move comes as the online retail giant works to cut costs
across different areas of its business. The company has cut more than 27,000
corporate jobs in the past year and axed areas of its business that haven’t
been delivering. Earlier this year, it stopped free grocery delivery for Prime
members on orders less than $150.
In the past, Amazon has raised the threshold order amount
for free shipping as high as $49. It lowered it to $25 in 2017 as Walmart was
ramping up its ecommerce operations.