Amazon will waive delivery fees for all shoppers during the holidays, becoming the latest retail giant to temporarily expand its free shipping policy. The offer starts Nov. 5 and covers all orders that will arrive in time for Dec. 25, 2018.
The initiative covers hundreds of millions of products and is expected to complement the free same-day shipping available for many Prime members on three million items. Eligible products span all categories on Amazon, including items featured in curated Gift Guides.
Advertisement
Amazon isn’t the only large retailer using free shipping to convert shoppers during the holidays. Walmart is expanding its free two-day shipping to millions of items for the holidays, and Target is offering the same deal on hundreds of thousands of products. Both retailers are differentiating themselves from the competition with other offerings:
- Walmart will let shoppers return e-Commerce orders in-store to simplify the return process; and
- Target will offer same-day delivery through Shipt in 46 states.
Free shipping’s impact on total purchase price is an important factor in shopper decision-making: 61% of online shoppers rank price as the most important factor when making an e-Commerce purchase, according to a study by Kibo. Speedy delivery is also a must: 63% of shoppers expect three-day shipping as the standard, and 40% say delivery taking more than two days would prevent them from making a purchase.
