Amazon ups minimum purchase amount for free shipping

If you are a fan of Amazon shopping who is of the sort that waits to purchase items until you cross the free shipping threshold, your wait will be a little longer now. Amazon has upped the minimum purchase amount for buyers to qualify for free shipping. That minimum purchase amount was previously $35 and has now been changed to $49.

This isn't the first time that Amazon has upped that minimum purchase threshold, the minimum buy for free shipping was $25 at one time. The most recent change sees shoppers needing to spend another $14 to get out of paying shipping fees. Many see this as a way that Amazon is trying to push buyers to join Prime.

Prime remains the same with users getting free 2-day shipping on any Prime eligible purchase. Prime shoppers can still get very cheap overnight shipping as well. Amazon will still ship any order with at least $25 worth of books for free. Users do have to select group my items into as few shipments as possible to get free shipping.

Word surfaced earlier this month that Amazon might be looking to compete with FedEx and UPS with its own delivery fleet. This isn't a delivery fleet where Amazon buys a fleet of its own vehicles; it seems to be an extension of the Amazon Flex service where Amazon was looking for drivers to use their own vehicles for deliveries. Amazon is reportedly inviting these Flex drivers to help with its on-demand delivery service that will also handle standard packages. Amazon is also still looking to roll out its Prime Air drone delivery service, but the drone fleet isn't ready just yet. Eventually drones will deliver your small packages.

SOURCE: Reddit