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how do they make money on this?
I maintain a wishlist at Amazon, not to publish a list of preferences but rather to maintain a buffer of interesting items. When there's something I want to buy that's under the $25 threshold for free shipping, I see if there's anything on my wishlist I want to add to the order.
Last night I went to place an order and was offered free two-day shipping for everything I order for four months. If I don't then cancel, they'll charge me $79/year. They promise to send me not one but two pieces of email reminding me of this (it's not the magazine-trial gimick where they rely on you not knowing how to or remembering to cancel in time), though I did take the precaution of adding a reminder to my calendar.
So now, with this temporary bonus (and its placement in November can't be an accident), I can buy single items under $25 when otherwise I would have had to buy more at once. It's in my best interest to order items singly, because if you order things together then one delayed item can hold back the entire shipment. And the faster shipping costs them money.
I wonder how they're making money from this. I guess the model is that more people will make those impulse single-item purchases (that they might have otherwise reconsidered in light of trying to find stuff to go with them). I, however, am not using it to buy anything I wouldn't have bought anyway, so their only benefit is timing. Is that worth the cost of the shipping? I don't know.
But hey, the copy of Joel Spolsky's Best Software Writing that I ordered 16 hours ago is now on its way to me. I'm not complaining. :-)
Last night I went to place an order and was offered free two-day shipping for everything I order for four months. If I don't then cancel, they'll charge me $79/year. They promise to send me not one but two pieces of email reminding me of this (it's not the magazine-trial gimick where they rely on you not knowing how to or remembering to cancel in time), though I did take the precaution of adding a reminder to my calendar.
So now, with this temporary bonus (and its placement in November can't be an accident), I can buy single items under $25 when otherwise I would have had to buy more at once. It's in my best interest to order items singly, because if you order things together then one delayed item can hold back the entire shipment. And the faster shipping costs them money.
I wonder how they're making money from this. I guess the model is that more people will make those impulse single-item purchases (that they might have otherwise reconsidered in light of trying to find stuff to go with them). I, however, am not using it to buy anything I wouldn't have bought anyway, so their only benefit is timing. Is that worth the cost of the shipping? I don't know.
But hey, the copy of Joel Spolsky's Best Software Writing that I ordered 16 hours ago is now on its way to me. I'm not complaining. :-)
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And, like you, people "buy up" to get the free shipping. They might only have bought a $12.95 book, but they go buy something $15 or $20 to bring the total up. That's where they make the money.
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Right -- that's the old system. With the new system, though, not only can I just buy the $12.95 book without padding the order, but they're spending more to ship it to me quickly. Granted it's just for a few months, but it sounds like a money-loser to me.
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I'll have to go read the agreement again.
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