Dive Brief:
- Amazon Fresh has lowered the threshold its Prime customers need to meet in order to receive free grocery delivery, the retailer confirmed in an email to Grocery Dive.
- As of Thursday, Amazon Fresh orders over $100 in the U.S. no longer carry a delivery fee for Prime members.
- The change comes almost 10 months after Amazon significantly raised the order minimum for fee-free Amazon Fresh delivery to $150 for Prime members.
Dive Insight:
The order minimum comes at a time when Amazon is continuing to build — and recalibrate — its grocery businesses, both in-store and online.
With this latest update, Amazon only altered the order minimum for free delivery for Prime members. For those shoppers, deliveries under $50 still incur a $9.95 fee while orders costing between $50 to $100 have a $6.95 fee. Customers who don’t have a Prime membership incur delivery charges between $7.95 to $13.95 depending on basket size and the delivery window selected.
Amazon customers in some areas can select a longer, six-hour delivery window for a reduced fee.
“We’re always listening to customer feedback and looking for ways to make shopping for groceries easier, faster, and more affordable. As part of that, we continuously test our delivery models to see where we can and should make adjustments,” Claire Peters, worldwide vice president of Amazon Fresh, said in an emailed statement.
Insider reported Thursday that Amazon was lowering the amount Prime members need to spend on Amazon Fresh order to avoid a delivery fee.
The update to its free delivery requirements continues Amazon’s efforts to bolster its Prime offerings and make its grocery services attractive to those members. Walmart has been hot on Amazon’s heels to win subscription members, and Amazon has had to temper its ambitions for its Amazon Fresh brick-and-mortar grocery stores.
Amazon has been working to revamp its struggling Amazon Fresh business, which it started as an e-commerce service more than 15 years ago before debuting stores in 2020. Amazon Fresh offered shoppers 20% off in-store orders of $50 or more in the days leading up to Prime Day this year and 25% off during Prime Day itself, which ran from July 11-12. A month later, Amazon unveiled significant changes to Amazon Fresh, including a refreshed store format and expanded online access.
Amazon continues to offer free pickup for Prime members on all Amazon Fresh orders and Whole Foods Market orders of $35 or more.
Amazon offers grocery delivery to Prime members in more than 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S. through Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods. Amazon customers who are not Prime members can get grocery delivery in a dozen metro areas, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego and San Francisco.
