Amazon's Free Shipping Offer Pressures Other Online Retailers

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the can't-take-it-away-now dept

When Amazon announced their earnings last week, they also said that they would keep their free shipping deal because they believed consumers liked it. What they left out is that consumers would be pissed off if it went away. And, angry customers are worse than customers who just don’t use your service. Now analysts are saying that free shipping is becoming like frequent flyer programs in the airline industry. It costs a lot of money, but you need to have it – and once you’ve started, you can never take it away. Other e-commerce companies are also feeling pressure to offer similar (costly) free shipping programs just to be able to compete.