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One of the best-known features of Amazon Prime is the free 2-day shipping you receive with membership. Many people like myself choose to join Amazon Prime for this reason alone, all the other features are just added perks.
But what if you don’t want to pay the annual fee for Prime Membership? Maybe you don’t order that often and you don’t think the fee is worth it.
Or it’s just not in your budget.
Regardless of your reasons, there are still a few easy ways to get free shipping on Amazon on your order without a Prime Membership.
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FIVE WAYS TO SCORE FREE SHIPPING ON AMAZON
ADD “FILLER ITEMS” TO YOUR ORDER
Even if you don’t have a Prime Membership, Amazon still offers free shipping on orders of $49 or more. And, if you’re ordering books, you only need to spend a minimum of $25 to get your entire order shipped for free.
There are also 3rd party sellers who offer free shipping with no minimum order. When ordering items, be sure to check the shipping incentives offered by “Other Sellers on Amazon”. You may be able to find just what you need from a 3rd party seller instead of direct with Amazon without having to pay to ship.
But, if what you’re ordering doesn’t meet the minimum for free shipping and you can’t find it through a 3rd party seller for free, try adding a filler item.
Of course, don’t add something you don’t need, but you can use Cheap Filler or Filler Checker to find filler items you may need that will help you reach the minimum for free shipping.
These sites allow you to enter the dollar amount you need to qualify for free shipping and choose product categories that may interest you then show you items you can purchase to help you reach your minimum. Pretty handy, right?
This allows you to only add items to your cart that you either need right now or know you’ll use at some point so you’re not frivolously spending money on things you don’t really need.
Worth noting: You may have heard that electronic Amazon Gift Cards can be purchased in any denomination that you need in order to fulfill your minimum purchase then used for a future purchase.
After reading Amazon’s rules on this, gift cards do not count towards your order total because they are electronic and they are not shipped.
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ORDER LIGHTWEIGHT PRODUCTS
Did you know that Amazon now offers free shipping on lightweight merchandise with no minimum order required? You didn’t did you?
They made this announcement very quietly and most people never heard about it. Things like cosmetics, earbuds, and cell phone accessories are a few of the thousands of items that Amazon now ships for free.
These items may take a little longer to receive because they are shipped from Amazon’s Kentucky warehouse so depending on how far away you live, you can expect 4-8 business days for delivery.
Most of the items available for free shipping come from 3rd party sellers so the best way to find out if your item qualifies is to click on “Other Sellers” from the product page.
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‘PRE-ORDER’ ITEMS
This is a little-known way to meet your free shipping minimum without having to spend $25.
Order an item that’s available for “pre-order”, and you won’t be charged for it until it’s shipped, but it will count towards your minimum purchase to help you qualify for free shipping.
Items that may be available for pre-order are books, video games, Blu-ray movies, and tech items. The best part is if you change your mind or don’t really want the item to begin with, just cancel your order for that item after the entire order has been placed. This way you’ll never be charged for it.
Worth noting: Don’t abuse this hack. If Amazon sees you using it too often they’ll start to charge you for your pre-orders. A few times a year though is fine and won’t raise any red flags for Amazon.
Use this trick with care.
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USE AMAZON’S SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE PROGRAM
Instead of running to the store every week for essentials like shampoo, pet food, laundry detergent and toilet paper, among other things, use Amazon’s Subscribe & Save feature to have them delivered right to your door.
The program is free to join, saves you money on all of these basic items, AND they’re delivered for free.
As an added bonus, Subscribe & Save members receive an additional 15% discount on the regular price of other Amazon products.
It’s simple to sign up and use:
- Check out Amazon’s Subscribe & Save Store to find items you use regularly.
- For each item you select, choose your delivery frequency and create your subscription.
- You can skip or cancel any of your deliveries at any time by going to your account and selecting your “Subscribe & Save Items”.
- Before each delivery, you’ll receive a reminder email from Amazon showing you what’s in your next delivery and what the current price of that item is. Your items may increase or decrease in price with each delivery based on the Amazon price at that time.
There’s no commitment and you can cancel this service at any time.
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SEARCH FOR FREE SHIPPING ITEMS
Last, but certainly not least, is to search for items that ship for free.
When searching for a particular item, look at your options to refine your search on the left side of the page.
If any of the items you’ve searched for are available for free shipping, you’ll see “Free Shipping by Amazon” under the “Refine by” options. Just click this button and all the items in your search that ship for free will be listed.
Delivery may take a little longer, but if you’re not in a hurry to get your item it shouldn’t be a big deal.
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CONCLUSION
If you don’t order from Amazon frequently or always spend at least $25 when ordering a book or $49 when ordering anything else, you shouldn’t need to pay for Prime Membership to get free shipping. With all of these great options, there are other ways to get free shipping on Amazon and never pay shipping costs again.
