Online retailing giant Amazon's free delivery offer has been halted for Israeli buyers. At the end of last week, Amazon introduced an offer for its customers worldwide of free delivery for purchases in excess of $80. After just a week, however, the offer has been ended for customers in Israel. The offer applied only to the 900 million or so items sold by Amazon itself, and not those that it markets for third parties.
When the free service started, purchases by Israelis on Amazon rose substantially, and in certain categories are believed to have reached twenty times the normal daily volume.
The sudden halting of the special offer surprised players in Israel's online trading market, who found it hard to explain why it had not lasted until Amazon's "Prime Day", as had at first been assumed.
Meanwhile, since the special offer began, the Israel Standards Institution is reported to have started to put difficulties in the way of importing products into Israel.
Prime Day is Amazon's annual bargain shopping event for its premium subscribers, due to start in four days' time and this year scheduled to last 36 hours.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 12, 2018
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