Amazon has been quietly raising the quantity 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 corporate is testing the brand new qualification, which was first reported by the blog eCommerce Bytes. The change doesn’t impact Prime members who pay $14.99 per 30 days, or $139 a 12 months, for free shipping and other perks.
“We continually evaluate our offerings and make adjustments based on those assessments,” Pressentin said.
For now, the brand new $35 minimum seems to apply to customers based on where they live, the buyer education website Consumer World said Monday. Amongst 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 web retail giant works to cut costs across different areas of its business. The corporate has cut greater than 27,000 corporate jobs up to now 12 months and axed areas of its business that haven’t been delivering. Earlier this 12 months, it stopped free grocery delivery for Prime members on orders lower than $150.
Prior to now, Amazon has raised the edge order amount for free shipping as high as $49. It lowered it to $25 in 2017 as Walmart was ramping up its ecommerce operations.