Amazon has come up with an all-new plan to bump its sales by offering free shipping on all Amazon holiday orders and lure in new Prime members. While last year Amazon customers had to pay a minimum fee of $25 to earn free shipping, this year the company shall waive the purchase minimum, starting this Monday, to give “customers even more convenient and faster delivery options.”
The National Retail Foundation has forecasted that holiday retail sales are expected to rise by up to 4.8% compared to a year ago. Amazon’s plan poses to provide tough competition to holiday strategies from top competitors like Target who provides free two-day shipping on all orders between 1st November and 22nd December. Amazon’s promotion is expected to make hundreds of millions of items eligible for free shipping, which is a giant figure when compared to Walmart’s, one of Amazon’s fiercest competitors, a sale of around 75 million products online.
This move also comes as an effort to pump up sales since the company’s revenue projection for the remainder of the year fell below some Wall Street analysts’ estimates; and based on latest estimates, the company expects sales for the fourth quarter to be between $66.5 billion and $72.5 billion.
Amazon did not announce a cutoff date for the promotion, but it did say that free shipping will be available for all orders placed for Christmas. It may set an end date towards the end of the season.
Prime members in the United States will get a holiday perk, however; and, additionally, Amazon is making more than three million items eligible for same-day delivery for the holidays. In recent months, Amazon has extended the offer for same-day delivery from Whole Foods through Prime Now to more than 60 cities.
