Amazon Prime Now doubles free delivery minimum order value to £40

Amazon have doubled the minimum order value for Amazon Prime Now from £20 to £40 in an unannounced change leading to uproar from their customer.

If you shop on Prime Now for same day delivery you’ll now find that if you don’t buy at least £40 worth of goods then you’ll have to pay £3.99 for same day delivery. Previously spending just £20 would get you free delivery and there’s still the optional (but expected) £2 tip for the delivery courier to pay so carriage really costs £5.99.

Users are especially irate as they viewed the free Prime Now deliveries as a perk of their Amazon Prime membership, which it still is, just not quite as good a perk as it was previously. The twittersphere is raging with complaints:

Disappointed by the @amazonprimenow £3.99 charge for orders under £40 without any notice. I used to order groceries every weekend for myself and spend at least £25-30, but £40 is a bit much for one person. This was my first weekend in a while without a purchase Amazon 🙁 pic.twitter.com/0EC5oymtQx

— Hans (@HansTranbergPR) November 15, 2017

Why would Amazon Prime Now minimum order value be doubled?

Amazon are amazingly good at hooking people into using their service and leave worrying about whether they can make any money for later down the line. It’s not even like they’ve increased their charges for Amazon Prime Now, they’ve just increased the minimum order size in the same way that in 2015 they doubled the order size for SuperSaver delivery to £20 and in 2015 doubled the value of orders to qualify for add on items also to £20.

When Amazon introduce a new service they’ll eventually take a look at their metrics and have doubtless figured out how many orders will be impacted and possibly not placed compared to how many people could up their order value slightly to £40 and make the economics viable.

None of this of course will placate the users accustomed to ordering twenty quids worth of goods and having them arrive on their doorstep within two hours for free (plus a £2 tip). They’ll now be faced with buying additional products that they’d have ordered tomorrow or next week or the awful alternative of popping down to their local corner shop or M&S Food store and having to carry their food home on the bus.