Amazon Offers 2-Day Shipping For $79/Year 325
stevejsmith writes "Amazon.com has announced their Amazon Prime service. For $79, you get free two-day shipping on all items, upgradeable to overnight shipping for $3.99 per item. The offer applies to most media (books, DVDs, CDs, etc.) and can be shared among "up to four family members living in the same household." Apparently the only way they will enforce this family-only sharing clause is by mandating that your "family members" know your birthday."
Family Members (Score:5, Insightful)
The service is limited to family members living in the same household, that means goods will(should) always be delivered to that one address, and I don't see many people can abuse it.
Enlighten me please.
small book stores (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if this rate deal covers the "used" 3rd party books.
Re:Family Members (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd be pretty pissed if I payed $79 a year for "free" shipping and I couldn't have my sister's christmas presents delivered to her in LA as well as my wife's delivered to my home in NC.
Last Time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Two-day shipping (Score:4, Insightful)
I once used two-day shipping with USPS, they lost the package, and found it again two weeks later. They kindly told me that two day shipping does not guarantee two-days to get there. I asked what the two-day shipping meant then, and I got a trout look.
Does two-day shipping price really mean anything?
The New WalMart (Score:5, Insightful)
People are making jokes about this, but this idea could change some of the methods of online/webbased stores. Just think, without having to worry about shipping charges _at all_, then I wouldn't have to worry about making a $5 order for a little kitchen gadget. I wouldn't have to run to the store for something, just go online, and it will be here in a couple of days.
This should really increase the sales of some of their smaller items. If I've got to get a couple new drill bits for this weekend's project, I can just click and get it and not have to run to Home Depot.
This is a cool idea if it makes the consumer think first about ordering online, and not as a second or third choice.
Re:Hmm.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Supersaver arrives in 2 days half the time anyway (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering that, I think you would have to order huge amounts of items per year for this to be worth it.
Re:Hmm.. (Score:4, Insightful)
What you're missing is that they've locked you in as an Amazon customer. You'll be much more likely to order from them and get your $79 worth than to compare their prices at BN, Powells, your corner used book store, etc. You're staying loyal to them and paying them for the privilege. And if you don't stay loyal? Well, they've still got your money. It's a double whammy.
Note that I'm not being critical. It's really a brilliant move, marketing-wise. Like the $15 annual discount cards they've always pushed at the brick-and-mortar stores, but at a much higher price and with a much higher break-even point for the benefit. If they make a killing with this, they deserve it. (And if the customers scoff and they lose their shirts, then clearly they deserved that too.)
Re:The New WalMart (Score:2, Insightful)
Customer retention (Score:2, Insightful)
Loyal customers already do most of their shopping @ amazon, so this offer will just be a way to save on shipping costs. The biggest impact is on customers that make a significant number of their purchases online, but not exclusively at Amazon. An offer like this might be enough to push them over the edge to become Amazon exclusive shoppers.
Re:Good for university students (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, a lot people would figure it out for themselves, and post it as a comment themselves, but is it really right for /. to post it in the actual article header?
Re:Forgot to mention PER YEAR (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The New WalMart (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I would love that. There's a lot of stuff that I need or like but don't need right away (actually, mostly anything outside of groceries).
The problem here is, however, that Amazon still has to pay for the shipping. And even if they can bring their own handling expenses way down, and get a great bulk rate by either buying a shipping company or at least cooperating with them, there's still a per shipping charge. And eventually someone is going to have to pick up the tab.
This sort of reminds me of 1999. Back then, during the bubble, when people thought it was actually a feasible business model to offer cat chow online. And consumers would pay $6.95 S&H on a two-dollar item.
Back then, we had this local grocery store that offered online orders. Really nothing out of the ordinary. They set up a basic webshopping system on a NT box and offered free deliveries (think: small grocery store chain & big, big city). The way they thought the whole thing would work was basically this: regulars customers would still come into the store but others would be able to conveniently do their regular grocery shopping online and have it delivered to their houses at a time of their choosing. That would have worked fairly well. The problem was that everybody and their mother literally started to order individual stick of gum and have it delivered (for free) to wherever the hell they happened to be. The company eventually went bankrupt because they refused to adjust (again, this was during the bubble).
My point is this: with all flat-fee models, someone eventually has to pick up the tab. Netflixx is awesome. I use it myself. It works because people do go on vacation. It works because people do forget about their memberships. It works because people do go out and do stuff during the summer.
It's going to be tough to offer flat-fee pre-paid shipping on all items without either raising prices on individual items or attaching some strings if people pick up on this.
Amazon has such a broad inventory that I could easily order something from them every few days. And that could really come back to bite them in the a$$. A business model like that just might be feasible for a company like Amazon. It just might not work very well for a smaller company.
Re:Shhhhh! (Score:4, Insightful)
The end of truly 'free' shipping? (Score:2, Insightful)
So Amazon pulls free shipping entirely, leaving you the option of $5+ per order, or $80/year.
It's brilliant, really, unless consumer backlash is worse than they're prepared for.
(I will say Best Buy ending their free shipping pretty much put an end to me ordering from them...) [oops, does that make me a Devil Geek, admitting shopping at both BB and Amazon?]
Re:Not a bad deal if you always want it NOW (Score:4, Insightful)
Gas, wear and tear on your car, the car payment itself, and driving time are not free.
Plus, some people live in the sticks.
Re:Shhhhh! (Score:3, Insightful)
At the same time, I know this deal would be terrible for a person like me - Most of the things I buy are more than 25 dollars, and I don't mind shopping at the store everynow and then. I could see this being useful for people who live in a more rural setting who can't as easily run to the store for something small.