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Amazon UK free delivery minimum spend doubled to £20

by Mark Tyson on 5 May 2015, 11:01

Tags: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacq6r

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This weekend Amazon UK doubled the customer spend required to qualify for its free 'Super Saver Delivery' service. The firm used to send any of its own stock to customers for free using 'Super Saver Delivery' but introduced a £10 minimum order value to qualify for the service in 2013. Now that minimum order value has doubled to £20.

The raising of the minimum threshold to qualify for free delivery may have been precipitated by the recent set of financial results, thinks the BBC. Just a month ago Amazon posted a loss of $57m (£36m) for the preceding quarter. So investors want to have the company do something to increase profitability on each 'basket' sold to customers.

Another theory is that Amazon's strategists think that the £20 minimum will push more people to sign up for the £79-a-year Amazon Prime service. Prime brings not only free delivery on over nine million Amazon warehoused items but you will also benefit from faster 'one day' delivery speeds. Subscribers also get Unlimited streaming of more than 15,000 movies and TV episodes with Prime Instant Video, unlimited photo storage, Kindle borrowing library and the ability to share your delivery benefits.

Before this £20 minimum was introduced in the UK a number of other markets went through a similar threshold increase. According to an analyst from Kantar Retail, speaking to the BBC, there wasn't "a significant decrease in the amount of transactions that take place because of the convenience it offers".

One exception to the UK's £20 minimum threshold for free 'Super Saver Delivery' is noted. If you buy books totalling £10 or more in value you can add other items into the order for free delivery alongside them.

HEXUS Forums :: 44 Comments

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Posted by Saracen - Tue 05 May 2015 11:12
Bit slow off the mark this time, HEXUS. ;) :D

There's about a four of five page thread in GD from last week ….http:// http://forums.hexus.net/general-discussion/338371-amazon-increases-free-delivery-spend.html
Posted by Jowsey - Tue 05 May 2015 11:49
Saracen
Bit slow off the mark this time, HEXUS. ;) :D

There's about a four of five page thread in GD from last week ….

I've thought this a couple times!

Also, Mr Hexus, what a very weird product you appear to purchasing… It's not even tech related!!
Posted by shaithis - Tue 05 May 2015 11:59
I wish they would stop ramming prime down everyones throats….
Posted by Saracen - Tue 05 May 2015 12:08
shaithis
I wish they would stop ramming prime down everyones throats….

Ditto.

Prime, modestly-priced, as a delivery option for regular users? Fine. At anything like the current price, with all sorts of stuff (streaming, etx) I have NO interest in? No use to me at all.

If they want any chance of getting me interested, or presumably, like-minded folk, perhaps they need a basic Prime for us, and a Prime Plus with all the extra guff.
Posted by crossy - Tue 05 May 2015 12:15
nother theory is that Amazon's strategists think that the £20 minimum will push more people to sign up for the £79-a-year Amazon Prime service. Prime brings not only free delivery on over nine million Amazon warehoused items but you will also benefit from faster ‘one day’ delivery speeds.
In that case those strategists are wrong - “incentivising” folks to sign up for the £80/year Prime is just going to dissuade from buying from Amazon. Heck, when I was looking for a new router, PC World was actually cheaper overall than Amazon for two day delivery.
shaithis
I wish they would stop ramming prime down everyones throats….
Prime I'm fine with but, as I've said to Amazon themselves in a recent survey, forcing people to accept the whole bundle is a stupid thing to do. I know I'm not the only one (because I remember Saracen saying similar) that a Prime that was expedited delivery and nothing else at an attractive price (hint: £30?) would be looked on favourably, the current Prime is a waste of money since it includes that awful “Instant Video” money drainer.

Actually maybe I should thank Amazon, because before they slapped in IV and upped the price I was buying a LOT from them. Now that I'm no longer a Prime member I'm saving money because I'm having to factor in delivery costs - which makes some purchases a definite “second or even third thoughts”. :)

If Amazon want to look at loss of revenue then they might want to consider better customer service, although at least the returns policy is still pretty solid. I bought a new router from them recently (it was the same price as PC World, but Amazon had stock). Opened the Amazon box and what I got out looked like it'd been used, (cables not bundled, ripped plastic bags, etc). Worse still, no setup manual AND the previous owner had changed passwords etc - so if I'd not been able to Google for “Asus RT-AC68U factory reset” then I would have had a paperweight. Went to register with Asus (because this router has a 3 year warranty from Asus if you register with them) only to be told that it was already registered. Amazon CS's attitude was "we warranty it for a year, what's your problem?" (when they got back to me eventually). It's going back today and a replacement will be here tomorrow. Unfortunately, Amazon were cheapest so they got the repeat business, but if anyone else had even come close then they'd have got the money instead of Amazon. Really not happy and vowing to avoid Amazon if possible in future.

EDIT: and now I see Saracen's come online to back up what I was saying - Prime for deliveries etc only = good, Prime with music and video setups = bad.

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