Before you order anything from Amazon, just know that their free shipping policy recently changed
Free shipping is probably the best thing about online shopping. Sure, there’s the excitement of the actual act of shopping, adding items to your cart and ultimately purchasing them, but how many times have high shipping costs prevented you from buying ALL THE THINGS?
We don’t need that kind of negativity in our lives, so we’re all about free shipping. One major retailer known for free shipping is Amazon. The online giant has been offering free shipping with a minimum price for years! That price was $35, so it was a pretty easy minimum to meet. Unfortunately, we’ve got some bad news… the minimum was just increased.
In order to score free shipping, you now have to spend $49. According to CNET, the last time Amazon upped the minimum price for free shipping was in 2013, when the price was raised from $25 to the $35 we eventual grew accustomed to.
The jump in the minimum amount for shipping applies only to shoppers who don’t subscribe to Amazon’s Prime service, which still offers free two-day shipping. The recent price increase is due to elevated shipping costs. CNBC reports that Amazon’s shipping costs were $11.5 billion last year, an 18% increase from the prior year. That’s a whole bunch of money spent to get us our goodies in a timely manner. With the free shipping option, you can expect delivery within 5-8 business days.
Of course, if you’re an avid reader, don’t despair. The $25 minimum is still in effect for books, so now may be the perfect time to pick up A Tale of Two Besties and any other books you’ve been eyeing.