I’ve been writing and blogging about ways to save money for almost three years now. It’s something close to my heart as I work through ways to cut more costs in our household. Good money management consists of a few facets, one being saving the money you make. Today, I wanted to show you two ways you can get free shipping on Amazon.com without forking over $99 for a Prime membership. Now, I’m a fan of Prime and am a Prime member. I’ve found it’s worth the money, but other don’t see the same calculations. I’m cool with that. Since it’s the largest online retailer, why not understand the ways to save money there.
Two Easy Ways to Get Free Shipping Without Amazon Prime
While I could add these to my popular post, 25 ways to save money everyday at Amazon, I figured it would be better served as it’s own article. We can only handle so many ways to save at one place, right? So, without further ado, let’s discuss the two super easy ways to get free shipping without Amazon Prime. Make sure to look at the bottom for a little tip on how to view all the products that are eligible for free shipping. They are easy.
Get Free Shipping on Lightweight Items
Amazon just introduced a new shipping initiative that sounds promising for online shoppers. They even built a new fulfillment warehouse just to house the products it will cover. Yes, you can now get free shipping on thousands of lightweight items without spending a dime on Amazon Prime or having to reach a threshold.
Bloomberg broke this news on June 2nd. It created a big stir in the e-commerce world and I think it’s good for consumers. Basically, Amazon built a new warehouse in Kentucky to house products that weigh 8oz and less. These products typically don’t cost much more than $10 and usually are beauty products and tech accessories.
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The kicker with this new initiative is the shipping is standard, not expedited like with Prime. You will get your order within four to eight days depending on your relation to the Kentucky warehouse. This might not deter people because most online shoppers hate paying for shipping. Free shipping is almost all but expected now. If you don’t offer free shipping on products, it’s really going to hurt your sales. Trust me, I do this for a living!
As with any Amazon initiative, you will see the shipping verbiage on a product page if/when you’re ready to check out.
Free Shipping on Orders over $35
One shipping initiative Amazon has used for a long time is their free shipping on orders of $35 and up. They indicate on a page when shipping is free with orders of $35 and up. Not every product on Amazon is eligible for this promotion, but those are usually special orders or even over-sized items. The way to do this is to add enough products to your cart that are eligible for free shipping. The item will say either “Free Shipping” or “FREE Shipping on orders over $35”. Below are two examples of these listings.
As with the free shipping on lightweight items, the free shipping is slated as regular and can come between five and eight days. Now, these are just estimates, since Amazon has warehouses all over the country. You could get a product in two or three days depending on which warehouse it ships out of. The $35 shipping benefit is the one thing that makes me rethink my Amazon Prime membership, but since it doesn’t renew until February of next year, I’m going to keep enjoying the two-day shipping!
So, there you have it friends. This is how you can easily get free shipping on Amazon orders without forking over money for Amazon Prime. Now, if you use Amazon a lot, like I do, or you have to make some big purchases (ie. heavy items), then you might want to think about Amazon Prime. If you just want to try it out, check out this link for a free 30-day trial. You can get some big items shipped to you and test out the service before you buy.
Amazon Free Shipping Tips
OK, so there are the ways to get free shipping when shopping on Amazon, but how do you go about finding all the products that are eligible for free shipping. Luckily there are two ways to do this as well.
First, when you’re searching on Amazon, add in “free shipping” at the end of your search term. Amazon does a good job just including items that are eligible for free shipping and showing you products that can be combined for free shipping. Here is a screenshot of an example search I did.
If you don’t use the above method, then you can also refine the products on the page by using Amazon “refine results” section on the left sidebar. This will show you options of free shipping. You can click the link and the results on the page will be refined to only show those eligible for free shipping. You can use the same refined section to show you only products eligible for Prime, if you have the membership. Here is a simple screenshot below.
Those are great tips for saving on shipping. Last Christmas I used the 30-day trial of Amazon Prime to get my items shipped free, but I’m glad to know that even when it’s over I can still save.
I love Amazon. I have prime and it is well worth it. Between the free shipping, movies, tv shows and music I am hooked. Thanks for sharing your tips!!!
As a long term Amazon Prime member, I fail to see the problem with the cost of membership.I order frequently and the membership cost more than adequately is made up in the lack of shipping costs. And I can forgo 2day shipping for credit on account for credit for shipping on the Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh sections.
I completely agree, but some just really don’t want to pay the fee.
Yep. You can do a bit of math and see if Prime actually saves you money or not. It’s probably the upfront fee you have to pay for Prime that scares people off.
Great to know, I have started using my Amazon Prime free trial but once it runs out I know I don’t need it to get free shipping since most of my orders are under $10 and are quite light, great article!
Now about the 20.00 fee increase! Way too much for one increase. They are getting too big for their britches. I am quitting.
I think many are going to be doing the same. I probably will after my year is up.