With the November sales approaching and the online and physical battle for the consumer's dollar, Amazon is getting in early and improving its free delivery service to Israel. A post on the Facebook group "I Need It!" states that the threshold for entitlement to free delivery will fall from $65, the threshold from the last sales campaign that came into force in August, to $49.
Benny Buchnik, administrator of the group, says that at this stage the offer does not appear on all products and categories, but more and more products are being updated to include free delivery. At present, the offer is valid on Amazon's US website on some Amazon products in the catalogue, and covers products in various categories from Amazon sellers.
In November 2019, Amazon came out with a similar offer that was ended in March 2020. Buchnik says that after a long period during which the free delivery was suspended, because of the dramatic rise in delivery costs and the restrictions on aviation that affected the whole industry, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon is now offering preferential terms to buyers from Israel. "This indicates a return to routine and somewhat saner charges, and also Amazon's interest in the Israeli market," he says.
The exemption from duties and taxes for buyers online in Israel is currently on purchases of up to $75. On Amazon's website, for Amazon products (as opposed to products from third party sellers on the Amazon platform), the addition of VAT on purchases in excess of this amount will be calculated at the time of purchase. With purchase from other sites, the tax is calculated in Israel after dispatch. Buchnik points out that tax can be avoided on a purchase of several items totaling more than $75 by splitting them into separate packages, since Amazon does not combine packages for the purposes of tax calculation.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 19, 2021.
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