Amazon will pay customers to pick up orders
- Amazon is offering shoppers $10 to pick up purchases instead of having them delivered.
- According to Reuters, Amazon is offering the deal to shoppers who spend $25 and don't typically pick up their orders.
- The retailer says it isn’t a cost-cutting move, but it's the latest in a string of changes for Amazon.
Amazon is now offering some customers in the U.S. $10 to pick up their orders rather than having them shipped to their home Reuters reported.
According to the May 8 report, Amazon is marketing the promotion to customers that have not previously used Amazon Pickup or to customers who haven’t used it in the past year. The e-commerce giant has emailed an unknown number of customers, offering the promotion on orders more than $25, the report said.
Pickup points include Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and Kohl’s, the report said. Amazon told Reuters that the program wasn’t new, though it didn’t say how long the promotion had been offered, and it said that the promotion wasn’t intended to cut costs. Earlier this year Amazon started charging customers $1 to make returns at a UPS store if a Kohl’s, Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market location was closer to the address where they had the order delivered, Retail Leader reported.
Amazon in January raised the price of grocery delivery through Amazon Fresh. Free delivery is now available to its Prime shoppers who spend more than $150 in a single order. Previously, free delivery was available to Amazon Fresh orders that totaled $35. Amazon’s Prime membership costs consumers $14.99 per month or $139 per year. The cost was last raised by the retailer last year by $20 from its previous cost of $119 per year.