Issue: Free Shipping Free Shipping - By: Sharon O'Malley - SAGE Business Researcher
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Issue: Free Shipping
Free Shipping
By: Sharon O'Malley
Pub. Date: February 4, 2019
Access Date: January 15, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/237455680504.n1
Source URL: http://businessresearcher.sagepub.com/sbr-2022-108967-2916714/20190204/free-shipping
©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Can retailers survive without offering it?
Executive Summary
Free shipping for online purchases is increasingly an expectation that retailers must meet to make a sale. Amazon has become the
world’s largest online retailer in part because of its Prime program, which offers members free two-day shipping on all purchases, no
matter how inexpensive, for a $119 annual fee. Amazon’s success spurred competitors such as Target, Walmart and Best Buy to offer
their own free-shipping deals during the 2018 holiday season. Experts point out that free shipping is not totally free; many consumers
either pay fees to membership programs or add items to their online shopping carts to meet the free-shipping threshold. Yet customers
increasingly demand some form of free shipping, and close to half of those surveyed last year said they would abandon a purchase if they
discovered at checkout that they would have to pay for shipping. Millennials are more likely to expect free shipping than other age groups.
Some key takeaways:
Amazon Prime members spend on average more than twice as much on Amazon as non-members.
Half of all U.S. households now subscribe to Amazon Prime, and the program has 100 million members worldwide.
Almost 70 percent of online shoppers say they expect free shipping even if their purchase is less than $50.
Full Report
Amazon packages on their way to holiday shoppers. The retailer offers free two-day shipping on all purchases to members of
its Prime program. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
‘Twas two months before Christmas when Target stunned the retail world by announcing it would ship orders to online customers for free
until Dec. 22, with no minimum required purchase. The deal was a bid to undercut every competitor, including Amazon, the worldwide king
of free shipping, which was offering the same free, two-day deal only to its Prime subscribers, who pay $119 a year. 1
Within two weeks, Amazon had upped the ante in the holiday-themed tug-of-war for customers, offering free, five- to eight-day shipping
with no minimums to all of its online shoppers. And it sweetened its Prime deal with free, same-day shipping on more than 3 million items
through Christmas Eve. 2
3
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3
Before long, Walmart announced its own free two-day shipping deal on orders of $35 or more and Best Buy had matched Target’s offer.
The retail giants did not announce the winner of the holiday shipping wars, but industry analysts have their money on Amazon. By the time
America had settled in for a long winter’s nap on Dec. 24, the world’s largest online retailer had proclaimed 2018 its best holiday season
ever, thanks, at least in part, to its free shipping deal. And it had “tens of millions” of new Prime customers sampling a free trial or
subscribing, according to Amazon. 4
The Prime tryouts were really the point. While Target, Walmart, Best Buy and other megasellers no doubt amassed millions of one-time
sales in response to their shipping promotions, only Amazon could parlay its holiday campaign into a slew of paying Prime customers,
who get not only free two-day shipping year-round, but an endless selection of products and free video and music streaming. 5
Half of all U.S. households already subscribe to Amazon Prime, analysts estimate. 6 Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has estimated
that the service has 100 million members worldwide, a figure confirmed by a research firm. 7
While free two-day shipping is not Prime’s only perk, it is perhaps its greatest draw, and analysts say Amazon needs Prime to make the
company profitable. 8 Prime membership fees help to subsidize free shipping. “Amazon sells stuff for close to cost and makes all their
profit on the fixed membership fee, just like Costco,” said Stephen J. Hoch, an emeritus marketing professor at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “And free shipping is just another cost that Amazon absorbs in order to get the flat fee and longer-term
loyalty.” 9
That loyalty comes as Prime members spend more than twice as much as non-member shoppers: $1,400 per year compared with $600
in 2018, according to Chicago-based Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which polled Amazon customers. 10
Amazon itself does not report revenue attributable to Prime members, saying its income from sales fluctuates, depending on whether the
sale is made by Amazon or a third-party seller using the Amazon platform. In addition, Prime subscribers may purchase items that are not
eligible for free shipping, which makes it difficult to track the percentage of net sales by members. 11
Nonetheless, Amazon’s fulfillment expenses – including shipping and the cost of operating its warehouses, customer service centers and
physical stores – grew by 66 percent between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. At the same time, Amazon’s net sales
grew at a rate of 43 percent. 12
Amazon’s shipping costs in 2017 totaled nearly $22 billion. By comparison, the company posted a profit of approximately $3 billion that
year. 13
Prime Membership Skyrockets
U.S. Amazon Prime Membership Growth, 2013-18
Sources: Matt Rosoff, “Amazon has added almost 20 million new Prime subscribers since last year’s Prime Day,” Business Insider, July 12, 2016,
https://tinyurl.com/ya6ltm63; Allison Enright, “Amazon Prime membership growth slows in the US,” Digital Commerce 360, July 16, 2018,
https://tinyurl.com/yczm6uer
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https://tinyurl.com/yczm6uer
Amazon Prime membership in the United States has grown fourfold in the past five years, reaching 101 million
in 2018.
Prime membership fees are not enough to completely subsidize Amazon’s free shipping. The retailer, for example, also generates
revenue through fees it charges to third-party sellers on Amazon.com who use its fulfillment services. And it collects shipping charges from
non-members, as well as from Prime members who are willing to pay for overnight or same-day delivery. 14
Still, “free shipping is a huge money-maker for Amazon” because it attracts hordes of customers who otherwise might shop elsewhere,
says retail economist John Silvia, owner and CEO of Dynamic Economic Strategy, a consulting firm based in Charlotte, N.C. He adds,
however, “There’s nothing that’s free.”
To consumers, however, free shipping has become an expectation, even when they wittingly or unwittingly pay for it by shelling out an
annual membership fee to belong to Amazon Prime or another retailer’s buyers’ club, or by stuffing unplanned or even unneeded items into
their digital shopping carts so their purchases will meet the minimum dollar amount that will qualify for free shipping.
Shoe retailer Zappos is credited with being one of the first to offer free shipping and free returns. Their move to do so in 1999 quickly set
up the expectation among shoppers that others would follow suit. 15 Amazon acquired Zappos in 2009 for $1.2 billion. 16
Nearly 70 percent of online shoppers said in a 2018 National Retail Federation survey that they expect free shipping even on purchases of
less than $50. Almost half – 47 percent – said they will abandon their online shopping carts if they discover, when they get to the checkout
page, that they will have to pay for shipping. 17
“I absolutely refuse to pay for shipping,” said Ginger Greer, a Medford, Ore., attorney who frequently shops online and has an Amazon
Prime membership. “You can find anything, anywhere at this point” without paying for shipping, Greer said. 18
“So it really is something people expect,” says Kathleen Cullen, director of industry and consumer insights for the Washington-based
National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. “At this point, it’s something that retailers have to understand. This is something
consumers want.”
The shipping app Shippo estimates that 34 percent of U.S. retailers always offer free shipping, another 34 percent offer it occasionally as
part of a promotion and 27 percent never offer it. 19
Customers “hate paying for shipping,” says Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst
at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. “They’ll go look somewhere else
and see if they can get it with free shipping, or they’ll go and look to see if they
can get it from a store.”
Often, Kodali says, they wind up on Amazon.com, where non-Prime
customers get free shipping on orders of at least $25. John Tschohl, president
of the Service Quality Institute, a consulting firm specializing in customer
service, agrees. “If Amazon sells it and you don’t provide free shipping, you’re
not going to get the order,” he says. Tschohl says his own business, which
sells books about customer service online, would not make those sales if it
had not started offering free shipping.
One exception, Kodali says, is the niche retailer whose product is so unique
that no other outlet sells it. In that case, buyers will “begrudgingly” pay for
shipping, she says, but not more than 10 percent of the value of their purchase.
Most retailers, however, whether they compete with Amazon or partner with the site to sell their own brands on it, follow Amazon’s lead.
“They were pressured [by consumers] to absolutely compete with Amazon,” Silvia, the retail economist, says. Kathy Allen, a strategic
consultant and owner of public relations consulting firm Grannis PR Strategies in Washington, agrees. “If eight out of 10 people are saying,
‘Do this and I’ll be happy,’ ” says Allen, a former National Retail Federation spokeswoman, “it would be crazy for any retailer to abandon
that. I don’t see it going anywhere.”
Not every brand can sustain a free-shipping business model, however, especially those that “do it foolishly over time,” says Kodali, who
points to Target’s no-minimum-purchase-required holiday model. “I can’t imagine it was a lucrative endeavor.”
Jeff Gornstein, president of the Newark, N.J., home and garden e-tailer Comfort House, said offering free shipping eats into his profits.
When the company started in 1991, he said, “There was no such thing as free shipping. And actually, today there’s no such thing as free
shipping.” 20
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The online store offers free shipping on orders of $69 or more. Gornstein estimates that the company spends about 12 percent of its
revenues to subsidize shipping, which costs it $15 to $20 per order. “We’re absorbing more and more of it because we can’t pass along
the costs to customers, because of Amazon,” he said. 21
Instead, retailers mix and match from a menu of options that will allow them to offer free shipping in a way that hooks customers without
giving away the store.
For example, some stores, including big ones such as Walmart, require customers to spend anywhere from $25 to a few hundred dollars
before shipping is free, prompting shoppers to purchase additional items to meet the threshold. Other retailers will ship only high-margin
items for free, or lightweight products such as jewelry, which are cheaper to mail. Many retailers ship for free only for holidays, such as
Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, or only within the United States. 22
Watch video with marketing professor Gerard Tellis on how innovation has allowed Amazon to grow:
Amazon’s success with Prime has made fee-based members-only programs popular. Some retailers will ship free to customers who
belong to loyalty programs or have made a minimum number of purchases in the past month. For example, Bed Bath & Beyond,
Restoration Hardware and GNC have loyalty programs. 23 Bed Bath & Beyond charges $29 a year for its Beyond+ program, whose
members get free standard shipping on all online orders and 20 percent off online and in-store purchases. 24
No matter which promotion for free shipping a company chooses, the business still has to cover delivery charges. Kodali says the largest
companies are adept at cutting deals with shippers such as Federal Express, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
USPS reportedly charges Amazon approximately $2 per shipment, half of what Federal Express and UPS charge. The deal is possible
because USPS mail carriers stop by almost every home every day anyway, so they can drop off packages without making a special
trip. 25
The arrangement became controversial in 2017 when President Trump objected to the deep discount, tweeting that USPS should charge
the online retailer “much more.” Trump called for a Treasury Department report on the arrangement. It is unclear whether USPS makes a
profit delivering Amazon packages, and if so how much. 26 Treasury in December proposed that the Postal Service should change how it
prices the packages it ships for Amazon and others “with profitability in mind” and should raise its rates on deliveries of goods bought
online. 27
Trump’s intervention raised some eyebrows because he has feuded publicly with Amazon founder Bezos, who also owns The Washington
Post, which Trump has accused of covering him unfairly. 28
Amazon reportedly is expanding its own package delivery service that eventually could compete with UPS and Federal Express. The
retailer also has experimented with “last-mile” deliveries involving entrepreneurs driving their own cars; a six-wheeled delivery robot that
can ride on sidewalks on its own; and the notion of delivery drones that could carry and drop off up to five pounds of cargo. The drone
concept has faced regulatory and logistical roadblocks. 29
Aside from delivery discounts, online retailers are saving on shipping costs by
inviting shoppers to order and pay for their merchandise online and pick it up
in a physical store. “It is an option for retailers who want to protect their
shipping costs,” the National Retail Federation’s Cullen says. Shoppers, who
do not pay for shipping, like it, too: In the National Retail Federation survey, 68
percent said that option “improved their shopping experience,” Cullen says. “A
lot of people like the physical shopping experience,” she says. “They like to
touch something. They can return it right away or get another size. They can
take care of that transaction right now.”
Cullen says retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target
and Home Depot are experimenting with in-store pick-ups at cash registers;
at curbsides, where an employee will hand the package to a shopper who
does not want to get out of the car; and from lockers, where customers punch
in a passcode to retrieve their merchandise. “It’s something retailers as a whole are focusing on,” she says.
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The success of buy online, pick up in store, also known as “click and collect,” has been part of the impetus for online retailers to open
brick-and-mortar locations where customers can pick up their orders and see and touch the products. “Free shipping is not a panacea,”
says Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief and a senior economic analyst for financial publisher Bankrate. “Even Amazon has created
a brick-and-mortar experience and can be very efficient in that space because they know what the customer wants.”
Amazon in 2017 partnered with Kohl’s department stores to allow customers to return items they purchased online to a physical
location. 30 And Amazon, which began as a bookseller, has opened 18 bookstores in nine states and the District of Columbia and dozens
of popup stores in 21 states. 31
“We’re seeing a little bit of a pendulum swing back to stores,” retail analyst Kodali confirms. And big retailers such as Walmart and Target
are answering the convenience of shopping on Amazon by making their own stores easier to navigate, she says.
“Amazon for a long time would really win because you could type [which product you want] in and in a couple of seconds, add the item,
purchase it, and get it in a couple of days,” Kodali says. “Companies like Walmart and Target are getting much better about showcasing
what items are in their physical stores, right down to the aisle location.… In the past, you couldn’t find things in the store. You’d have to
track them down, wander around. But now you can go to their apps, type what you’re looking for and you’ll know immediately if the item is
at a local store and in which aisle.”
Cullen says buying an item online and picking it up in a physical store “is often faster than free shipping.… It does offer that sort of
immediacy for items that you don’t get with delivery.” As for same-day delivery from online retailers, “I don’t think we’re there yet,” Cullen
says, even though 24 percent of the consumers who answered the National Retail Federal survey said they expect free same-day delivery.
“Buy online, pick up in store has really changed the game for people who don’t want to wait for free shipping,” Allen says.
Millennials Value Free, Quick Delivery
Percentage of consumers who expect free two-day or same-day delivery, by age group
Source: “Winter 2017/2018 Consumer View,” National Retail Federation, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y8fjyrn4
Millennials prioritize free delivery from retailers more than any other age group, according to a 2018 National
Retail Federation survey.
While same-day shipping might not be uniformly free for a while, two-day free shipping is quickly becoming the standard for retailers – in
large part because consumers, and especially younger ones, now expect it. The National Retail Federation found that 38 percent of
consumers expect free two-day delivery. That number jumped to just under half among Millennials. 32
Economist Silvia says retailers will never be able to stop shipping for free, whatever the form. “Once the customer is used to that free
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shipping, they will always want free shipping,” he says. Tschohl, the service consultant, agrees. “Five years down the road, free shipping,
it’s going to be a way of life, unless Amazon changes to something else,” he says. But he adds that he does not expect this, because “it’s
a winning formula for Amazon.”
About the Author
Sharon O’Malley is an assistant professor of journalism at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. She is a freelance writer, editor,
consultant and trainer who has published articles in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including USA Today, Ladies’ Home Journal,
Working Woman and American Demographics. Her most recent report for Business Researcher was on 3D printing.
Chronology
1994-2001 Retailers pioneer commercial use of internet.
1994 NetMarket makes its first online sale, taking a credit card number online and shipping a CD of Sting’s “Ten
Summoner’s Tales” to a friend. Shipping charge: $12.48.… Internet payment companies First Virtual and CyberCash
begin processing online credit card sales.
1995 Jeff Bezos makes his first book sale from his Seattle garage, launching Amazon.com. Within 30 days, Amazon is
selling books to online shoppers in all 50 states and 45 countries.… The precursor to eBay, AuctionWeb, makes its
first sale: a broken laser pointer, which goes to the highest bidder for $14.83.
1997 Amazon goes public and expands its inventory to music, movies, electronics, toys, home and garden equipment,
clothing, jewelry and video games.
1998 PayPal, a global e-commerce company that accepts online payments for third parties, opens. Today, it manages 244
million accounts.
1999 Shoe retailer Zappos becomes one of the first e-tailers to offer free shipping on purchases and returns.
2001 Amazon posts its first quarterly profit; two years later it records its first annual profit.… Amazon introduces its first
mobile commerce site, allowing shoppers to use smartphones and tablets to make online purchases.
2005-Present Free shipping takes hold in e-commerce.
2005 Etsy, an online marketplace for crafts, is founded.… Amazon creates Amazon Prime, offering free two-day shipping in
the United States and access to video content in exchange for a flat annual fee.… The U.S. Supreme Court rules in
Granholm v. Heald that states may not prohibit out-of-state wineries from making direct-to-consumer shipments to their
state’s residents if they allow it for in-state wineries. The ruling has been applied to alcoholic beverage retailers in
some states.
2008 CouponSherpa.com launches Free Shipping Day, an annual mid-December shopping holiday with 1,000 retailers
participating; besides free shipping, it guarantees delivery by Christmas Eve.
2009 Amazon acquires Zappos for $1.2 billion.
2010 Payments platform Square allows businesses to accept debit and credit cards on mobile devices.
2015 Amazon opens its first brick-and-mortar store, a bookshop in Seattle.
2017 Walmart begins free two-day shipping to homes and stores without a membership fee and lowers its minimum
purchase for the deal from $50 to $35.… President Trump slams the U.S. Postal Service for offering deep discounts on
package shipping to Amazon.
2018 Target offers free shipping to online customers through Dec. 22 with no minimum purchase. Amazon, Walmart and
Best Buy respond with free shipping deals of their own.
Resources for Further Study
Bibliography
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SAGE Business Researcher©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Books Stone, Brad, “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,” Little, Brown and Co., 2013. A business journalist chronicles the origins and rise of the e-retail giant and its founder. Articles Bulger, Stephen, “How to Offer Free Shipping Without Going Broke,” PracticalEcommerce, April 10, 2012, https://tinyurl.com/yamwagmh. An executive for an online fulfillment company says no one-size-fits-all approach works for retailers offering free shipping and offers a slew of options, ranging from two-day free shipping to free shipping with a minimum purchase. Enright, Allison, “Amazon Prime membership growth slows in the US,” Internet Retailer, July 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yczm6uer. New research finds membership growth is declining for the $119-a-year club, which offers free two-day shipping and some free videos to members. The reason: The majority of U.S. online shoppers already have joined. Siegel, Rachel, “Amazon just upped the ante in the race for free holiday shipping,” The Washington Post, Nov. 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y9ovbm7p. A journalist looks at the free-shipping wars among Walmart, Target and Amazon, quoting analysts who predict Amazon will convert millions of new customers to its Prime membership after offering free shipping to all customers for a few weeks. Ungerleider, Neal, “Free Shipping Is A Lie,” Fast Company, Nov. 1, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/j2p22tc. The author reviews the true cost of “free” shipping, examining how retailers are building their own shipping operations, negotiating with delivery services and offsetting the price of shipping with incentives for shoppers to buy more. Reports and Studies “Customers want to find what they’re looking for, and say online shipping should be quick and free,” National Retail Federation, Jan. 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybuhw8zd. A quarterly report by the retailers’ association reveals that 68 percent of consumers expect free shipping even on purchases under $50. “2018 Holiday Retail Outlook,” Alliance Data, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y8vafzql. Researchers predicted the 2018 holiday shopping season would be the largest since 2011 and that most customers would shop both in a store and online. “2018 State of Shipping,” Shippo, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y78jefp9. In an annual survey by a Web app for shipping, researchers found that two-thirds of small and medium-sized retailers offer some type of free shipping and 75 percent say shipping costs are their biggest challenge. “UPS, Forrester Research Reveals Free Shipping Trends,” Multimedia Merchant, June 22, 2011, https://tinyurl.com/y6vrh3qj. Retailers believe free shipping gives them a competitive advantage, according to a research firm. They also believe that free shipping can result in unexpected labor costs and make buyers reluctant to shop without it; premium-shipping clubs and boosting product price on free-shipping items is popular among retailers; and retailers that count free shipping as a marketing cost tend to offer it more frequently. Chaffey, Dave, “Amazon case study – 2018 update,” Smart Insights, Aug. 14, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yb9ccwwr. A digital strategist updates his periodic examination of Amazon’s business strategy, revenue model and culture of metrics and offers a history of the online retail giant. The Next Step Amazon Prime “Amazon launches new autonomous self-delivery device called Scout,” Tech Startups, Jan. 23, 2019, http://tinyurl.com/yagtvwsf. Amazon is unveiling an autonomous package deliverer, about the size of a water cooler, designed to travel on sidewalks with customer packages. Haddon, Heather, and Laura Stevens, “Amazon Plans to Add Whole Foods Stores,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 31, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybaem8yv. Amazon is expanding Whole Foods locations so the stores will be able to use the company’s two-hour delivery service, Prime Now. Reisinger, Don, “Amazon Prime Has More Than 100 Million U.S. Subscribers,” Fortune, Jan. 17, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/ya6u3cco. The number of Amazon Prime members grew by around 11 million people in 2018, according to market research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). Competition Page 8 of 11 Free Shipping SAGE Business Researcher
©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Green, Dennis, “Amazon will soon lose the biggest reason to pay for Prime,” Business Insider, Jan. 21, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yaye9ppd. As Walmart and other retailers expand two-day free shipping options, Amazon will have to improve Prime’s benefits to stay competitive, says a Business Insider senior reporter. Premack, Rachel, “FedEx’s new service delivers online orders hours after they’re placed — and it shows that Amazon Prime isn’t special anymore,” Business Insider, Jan. 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y7h646h8. FedEx is now offering next-day or two-day shipping for orders placed as late as 2 a.m. within the continental United States. Ziobro, Paul, “Amazon’s Pitch to Woo Shippers: Fewer Fees Than FedEx, UPS,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 23, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/yaw4oeb2. In an effort to cut down on fuel surcharges and delivery fees, Amazon has launched its own home-delivery service, bypassing traditional shippers such as FedEx and UPS. Organizations American Retail Shippers Association 100 Quimby St., Suite 2, Westfield, NJ 07090 1-908-301-9888 www.americanretailshippers.com Association that represents importers and exporters of all commodity classifications; supports members’ transportation and supply-chain needs. Council of State Retail Associations 664 Sandpiper Bay Drive, S.W., Sunset Beach, NC 28468 1-215-499-6284 www.councilsra.com A portal for communications among state retail associations across the country, focusing on legislation and regulations affecting the retail industry. FedEx Corp. 3875 Airways, Module H3, Department 4634, Memphis, TN 38116 1-800-463-3339 www.fedex.com International shipping company that specializes in overnight delivery of parcels and letters. National Retail Federation 1101 New York Ave., N.W., Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20005 1-202-783-7971 https://nrf.com A trade association that provides education, advocacy and research for the U.S. retail industry. Parcel Shippers Association PO Box 450, Oxon Hill, MD 20750 1-571-257-7617 www.parcelshippers.org An association whose mission is to foster competition in the parcel delivery market; it offers legal and political representation and informs members of carrier rates. Retail Industry Leaders Association 1700 N. Moore St., Suite 2250, Arlington, VA 22209 1-703-841-2300 www.rila.org An association that represents retail industry executives and takes positions on trade policies that affect retailers’ supply chains. United Parcel Service 1835 Blue Hills Drive, N.E., Roanoke, VA 24012 1-800-742-5877 www.ups.com An international shipping company that delivers 5.1 billion packages and documents annually and generated $66 billion in revenue in 2017. U.S. Postal Service 475 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Room 4012, Washington, DC 20260-2200 Page 9 of 11 Free Shipping SAGE Business Researcher
©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1-800-275-8777 www.usps.com Service that delivers 47 percent of the world’s mail, reaching 157.3 million delivery points nationwide in 2017. Notes [1] Corinne Ruff, “Target announces free 2-day shipping this holiday season,” Retail Dive, Oct. 23, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y937tub8. [2] Colin Kellaher, “Amazon Offering Free Shipping on Holiday Orders,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ya6md7of. [3] Craig Johnson, “Stores with free shipping for the holidays: Amazon vs. Walmart vs. Target vs. Best Buy,” Clark, Nov. 15, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y7lw6khq. [4] “Amazon Customers Made This Holiday Season Record-Breaking with More Items Ordered Worldwide Than Ever Before,” press release, Amazon, Dec. 26, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybe8tan2. [5] Chris Neiger, “Walmart, Target, and Amazon Are Offering Free Holiday Shipping – Here’s Why Amazon Still Wins,” The Motley Fool, Nov. 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yanuqw8w. [6] “Amazon drops free shipping minimum, heating up fierce competition for holiday sales,” CNBC, Nov. 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y9db9gfz. [7] Rachel Siegel, “Amazon just upped the ante in the race for free holiday shipping,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y78ksten; “Amazon Exceeds 100 Million US Prime Members,” Consumer Intelligence Research Partners LLC, Jan. 17, 2019, http://tinyurl.com/ybnkf29h. [8] Adam Levy, “How Prime Makes Amazon Profitable,” The Motley Fool, March 25, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/yaexmypp. [9] “Can Retailers Escape the Scourge of Free Shipping?” Knowledge@Wharton, June 6, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y7cjo8l6. [10] “Amazon Exceeds 100 Million US Prime Members,” op. cit. [11] Evan Niu, “Why Amazon Still Doesn’t Think Prime Revenue Is Meaningful Enough to Disclose,” Dec. 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ydg9tz2a. [12] Alana Semuels, “Free Shipping Isn’t Hurting Amazon,” The Atlantic, April 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ya3dsegd. [13] Siegel, op. cit. [14] Semuels, op. cit. [15] “Can Retailers Escape the Scourge of Free Shipping?” op. cit. [16] “Amazon Closes Zappos Deal, Ends Up Paying $1.2 Billion,” Tech Crunch, July 22, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y8jtt5qd. [17] “Consumers want to find what they’re looking for, and say online shopping should be quick and free,” National Retail Federation, Jan. 16, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybuhw8zd. [18] Laura Stevens, “ ‘Free’ Shipping Crowds Out Small Retailers,” The Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y9s5hzz2. [19] “2018 State of E-Commerce Shipping,” Shippo, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y78jefp9. [20] Stevens, op. cit. [21] Ibid. [22] Stephen Bulger, “How to Offer Free Shipping without Going Broke,” PracticalEcommerce, April 10, 2012, https://tinyurl.com/yamwagmh. [23] Scott Robinson, “Paid Memberships Are the New Loyalty in Retail,” TotalRetail, April 17, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yamxg3xe. [24] Brandt Ranj, “Bed Bath & Beyond’s new $29-a-year membership is actually a really good deal—it can pay for itself in a single purchase,” Business Insider, June 10, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ycevn2c3. Page 10 of 11 Free Shipping SAGE Business Researcher
©2022 SAGE Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [25] Steven Pearlstein, “Is the post office making or losing money delivering Amazon packages?” The Washington Post, April 9, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ycutq2q4. [26] Lydia DePillis, “Trump, Amazon and the Postal Service: The story behind the tweet,” CNN, Dec. 29, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yb55lhfn. [27] Steven Overly, “Treasury proposes postal changes after Trump attacks on Amazon,” Politico, Dec. 4, 2018, http://tinyurl.com/y9wgo3ta. [28] Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey, “Trump personally pushed postmaster general to double rates on Amazon, other firms,” The Washington Post, May 18, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yaqck4dc. [29] Matt Simon and Arielle Pardes, “The Prime Challenges for Amazon’s New Delivery Robot,” Wired, Jan. 23, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y9xs3oyx; Nick Kolakowski, “Five Years Later, Where are the Amazon Delivery Drones?” Dice, Dec. 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y73od7hq. [30] Andrew Soergel, “Amazon Continues to Blur Retail Lines,” U.S. News & World Report, Sept. 19, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/ycohbmdu. [31] “Amazon Physical Retail Locations,” Amazon, accessed Jan. 24, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y9pzp974. [32] “Winter 2017/2018 Consumer View,” National Retail Federation, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y8fjyrn4. Page 11 of 11 Free Shipping SAGE Business Researcher
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