Three months after signing an agreement with the Israel Postal Company, Amazon is resuming and expanding its agreements with additional international delivery providers and customs brokers, sources inform "Globes." This measure follows enormous growth in purchases by Israelis on Amazon in the framework of November bargain shopping days and the free delivery offered by Amazon for purchases in the US made from Israel in deals for over $49. Amazon's measure follows a six-week period in which it terminated its agreement with couriers other than Israel Postal Company. These agreements have been renewed over the past month.
Volume grew ten-fold since November 2018
On November 11, 2019 (Chinese singles day), Amazon announced a bargain that is changing the rules of the game in Israelis' willingness to make orders through it: a bargain with free delivery for products from Amazon US in purchases of over $49 (excluding large products). Delivery sector sources say that the volume of packages from Amazon in November this year was "ten times the volume in November 2018."
When the bargain began, various sources predicted that it would be a focused bargain, and would end after Black Friday in November, but the bargain has now run continuously for over a month. Amazon announced to the Israeli media that Black Friday was the biggest shopping day for Amazon in Israel in volume of products ordered, and it appears that this shopping spree also continued on the following days.
According to Amazon's announcement, the bestselling categories in Israel on Black Friday and Cyber Monday included toys, kitchen utensils, cosmetics, clothing, and personal care products. Among the bestselling products were sets of Corelle dishes, iPhone holders, Contigo bottles, and toiletries like Colgate toothpaste, Gillette deodorant, Vaseline, and Listerine mouthwash.
Simultaneously with its bargain campaign, Amazon went on the air with a Hebrew translation for its local ecommerce platform. It appears that the continuation of the current bargain campaign has aroused complaints among local merchants in Israel, who are unable to subsidize free delivery for such small orders without dramatically detracting from their profits.
Together with these measures, Amazon reduced its foreign currency conversion commissions, with an option for paying in shekels, and is offering a better exchange rate than the rates used by most credit cards in Israel. This measure is very significant, given the growth in purchases through overseas websites. This change enables consumers to make purchases in shekels, and includes a charge when the deal is completed, in contrast to the previous practice.
Israel Postal Company said, "Like many companies in Israel and abroad, Israel Postal Company also works with business partners and sub-contractors in order to provide services and ensure a competitive price level in an environment that requires great flexibility. The company has been working with a number of sub-contractors for a number of years on, including in deliveries, and nothing has changed in this. Concerning any specific customers, we do not comment on our business relations with our customers."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 18, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019