Amazon matches Walmart, drops free shipping minimum to $35

Amazon has lowered the minimum spend threshold for free shipping back down to $35, matching a recent move from Walmart and reverting to Amazon’s own previous minimum spend.

Amazon’s free shipping help page now indicates the lower threshold for any product category on Amazon.com, and it also shows that the $25 minimum for book purchases remains unchanged.

Add at least $35 of eligible items or $25 of eligible books (in which case all other eligible items in the order also ship free) to your Shopping Cart. Any item with “FREE Shipping” messaging on the product detail page that is fulfilled and shipped by Amazon is eligible and contributes to your free shipping order minimum.

The price drop, which wasn’t announced formally, appears to have happened over the past couple of days. The Verge noticed and reported on it on Sunday. We’ve reached out to Amazon for additional information about the change but haven’t received a reply. UPDATE: Amazon has confirmed that the price change happened recently, but didn’t offer any reason for the change.

Just three weeks ago, Walmart made a move to woo Amazon customers by offering free two-day shipping with a $35 minimum purchase. That’s faster than Amazon’s $35 minimum offer, which promises delivery within five to eight business days. Then there’s the wildly popular Amazon Prime, which offers two-day shipping with no minimum spend but carries either a monthly or annual membership fee.

If the $35 threshold sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what Amazon used to require for free shipping. It was almost exactly a year ago that the company upped the the non-book threshold from $35 to $49.

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Matt McGee

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt’s disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.