Amazon Prime to Limit Free Two-Day Shipping

Gizmodo’s headline declared: “Amazon Prime Is About to Get Worse”, and CNNMoney cautioned: “Amazon to limit free two-day Prime shipping”.

By restricting free Prime shipping to a particular region, those companies might now have an incentive to ship for free items they might have charged for.

A select number of vendors now have the authority to ship under Amazon Prime, even if their goods aren’t in Amazon’s warehouses.

Amazon Prime is experimenting on a new program that will allow merchants to determine certain locations where they are willing to ship items that have no fees attached. This means that if a Prime customer is outside that region they will have to wait longer and won’t get Prime’s basic benefit of free two-day shipping. However, now they can choose to send items from their homes with the two-day shipping option, Tech Times notes.

Amazon is testing a new program called Ship by Region, which will allow some merchants to choose how far their items will ship with Amazon Prime.

The Wall Street Journal has more information about the program, which according to the newspaper is nicknamed Ship By Region.

So what’s my take on all this?

Most Prime items ship directly from an Amazon warehouse and are not affected by the program.

However, I have to acknowledge that there is more to consider.

Previously, Prime had been an either/or option for merchants: Items either were available for free shipping or they weren’t. Customers who live inside a merchant’s designated region will get their shipment in two days. I personally think it’s a matter of quantity over quality and that people will either love it, or hate it. Regardless, I feel that Prime is still worth it as I do a lot of buying on Amazon. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research?