Amazon sellers have until January 13, 2020, to make changes to Advertising Promotions if they offer free shipping promotions in their ads, which they use to encourage shoppers to purchase more items to reach a free-shipping threshold.
Some sellers expressed their disappointment with Amazon’s decision. One seller said it was a great way to get customers to buy more items, benefiting both sellers and Amazon – and as another seller pointed out, it benefits shoppers as well.
Others asked Amazon to provide a rationale for the new policy barring them from offering free-shipping promotions in their ads.
The “Free Shipping Promotion Deprecation” announcement is as follows:
“Free Shipping Promotions will no longer be supported starting January 13th, 2020. Please make any necessary edits to your Free Shipping Promotions in Advertising Promotions prior to this date. On January 13th, 2020, all Pending and Active Free Shipping Promotions will be terminated by having their status automatically updated to Expired and the Free Shipping promotion type will be removed from the Create a Promotion page in Seller Central.
“If you would like to provide free shipping for customers, you can set this up by going to the Shipping Settings within the Settings tab.
“We value your feedback on our Promotional tools. You can provide feedback using the Feedback footer in Advertising > Manage Promotions.”
You can find the announcement and seller comments on Amazon.com Seller Central.
Considering that shipping isn’t free and it’s an FTC violation to claim free shipping, particularly if you’re raising prices to offer it, I’m glad they made this move — as both a seller and a buyer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sudden extra attention Amazon is getting from government officials has anything to do with their decision.
IF I mention the shipping not being an additional charge, I will say “shipping included.” However, I have dozens of items that don’t have shipping added with no mention of shipping in the listing anywhere. They have to click on the calculate shipping button to see that shipping isn’t added. It does help when your listings are posted on shopping sites like Google Shopping, though, because they show the shipping and tax added.
I won’t shop on Wayfair because of their claim of free shipping when prices have obviously been hiked, often well above the combined value and cost of shipping of the item. I visited their site once, saw what I saw, and never returned. Same goes with Overstock. I want transparency…period…and I certainly don’t want to be overcharged.
Sorry, Wayfair, but “free” shipping really is a game changer.