A month and a half after Amazon began offering free shipping for Israelis purchasing $75 or more in goods, the offer has closed. Just as it began unexpectedly, so it ended without any prior warning.
Amazon was conducting a trial to test the Israeli market. It was no coincidence that the price floor for free shipping was set at exactly the same price at which an exemption from tax ended, in order to test if Israeli consumers would be prepared to buy higher priced items and pay VAT in exchange for free shipping.
Estimates are that tens of thousands of packages were ordered by Israelis during the offer including large and expensive products including furniture items.
The offer did not encompass all the items sold by Amazon - only Amazon products and not products from external suppliers. Moreover, not all items sold by Amazon are available in Israel but the range is growing.
"during the free shipping, the volume of purchases from Amazon in the US in the month and a half grew substantially and significantly. In every product segment from electr4onics to basic consumer goods," said Benny Buchnik, manager of the Facebook I need it page.
He added, "I assume that Amazon understands very well the potential of the Israeli market and I also assume that they will now carry out assessments and analyses of the data and will decide how to work in the future accordingly."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 13, 2018
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