Gratefully, delivery by bike is not one of the free shipping options
Last year a friend of mine wanted a particular set of magnets for her son. She works full-time and dedicated an evening after work to finding them at a local store. A few hours into her shopping adventure she called me. No one had anything remotely close to what she wanted. She asked if I had any other ideas. I responded, “have you looked online?”
In less than a minute I found exactly what she wanted on Amazon.com at a great price. I encouraged her to go home and enjoy her family, buy it online and wait for the toy to arrive at your doorstep. “But don’t I have to pay shipping? Won’t that negate the good deal?” she wondered.
Shipping costs don’t have to wreck your online shopping plans, particularly during the holiday season. Let these stats from the National Retail Federation convince you:
- 92.5% of online retailers will offer some sort of free shipping promotion this season
- 56% of online retailers have increased their budget for free shipping offers compared to last year
- 33% of online retailers will start free shipping offers sooner than last year
I’ve rounded up five ways that you can get free shipping this holiday season. I’m curious to hear what other ideas you online shoppers have. I’d also love to hear how much shipping costs impact where, how and how much you buy online.
Shop on Free Shipping Day
On one day, December 16, 2011, more than 700 retailers will offer some sort of free shipping promotion as part of Free Shipping Day. Promotions will vary by retailer, some won’t requiring a minimum purchase while others won’t. Orders placed on Free Shipping Day have a guaranteed arrival by Christmas Eve.
Sitewide Free Shipping All Season
Some retailers, like Best Best Buy and 6pm.com (the outlet store arm of Zappos.com) are offering free shipping sitewide, with no minimum purchase all season long. It’s still early enough in the holiday season that we may see other retailers join this free shipping bandwagon.
Use Membership Benefits
Last year we saw more retailers offering free sitewide shipping, but this year some, like Overstock.com have moved to free shipping for the site’s members. You pay some sort of monthly or annual fee, then get free shipping with no minimum purchase on most everything.
Some of the more popular memberships that offer some sort of free shipping benefit include:
Amazon Prime
Amazon is the granddaddy of this model with Amazon Prime. You pay $79 per year and get free 2-day shipping on anything shipped by Amazon, although items shipped from a third party are excluded.
There are three ways you can get a free time-limited Amazon Prime membership and the associated free 2-day shipping with no additional purchase.
Trial Membership
If you haven’t had an Amazon Prime account in the last 13 months, then you are eligible for a free 1-month Amazon Prime trial. You’ll need to add an Amazon Prime-eligible item to your shopping cart, then sign up for your trial in order to activate it. After signing up, I recommend immediately going in to cancel the auto-renew function so you are never charged for it.
Amazon Mom
If you are a mom or a caregiver to a child, then you can get three months of free shipping benefits when you create a free Amazon Mom account. For every $25 you spend on baby and kid-related merchandise your free shipping benefit is extended by a month up to 12 total months of free shipping.
Amazon Student
If you are a student with a .edu email address, then you can get six months of free shipping when you create a free Amazon Student account. After creating this account you’ll need to log in and cancel the auto-renew option. If you don’t, then the free shipping benefit will automatically renew and you’ll be charged $39 per year for it.
Target REDcard
Target offers a store-issued credit card as well as a debit card, a Target REDcard, that are good exclusively on purchases at Target stores orTarget.com. if you buy online from Target.com and use a Target REDcard at checkout, then you can get free shipping with no minimum purchase. You also get 5% off your final price anytime you pay with a Target REDcard as well.
I’m not a fan of store credit cards, but do like that they offer a debit card option. I don’t have one yet myself, but plan to open one soon because this is a fabulous benefit, in my opinion. (If you want to learn more about Target REDcards, we wrote a blog post about it some time back that might be of interest to you.)
Overstock
Overstock.com offers a membership for $19.95 per year, but you get a free two-month trial. Overstock has a solid reputation and if you plan to buy a number of things from them this holiday season, you may want to activate a trial, but be sure to cancel within 60 days or you will be charged.
FreeShipping.com
FreeShipping.com is a third-party service that offers free 2-day shipping at 1,000+ online retailers. You pay $12.97 every month and get access to unlimited free shipping at many large websites including Sears, Macys and others. In some cases the free shipping is immediate at checkout, but more typically the free shipping comes via a rebate check. You need to initiate your online shopping at FreeShipping.com and shop through their portal to qualifying stores to get the rebate.
I mention this program primarily to caution against it. It doesn’t seem like a good value to me, but is often advertised during checkout at FreeShipping.com’s participating retailers. I want you to be educated about what this program is and then you can decide if it fits you.
ShopRunner is a similar fee-based service that charges $79 per year. ShopRunner has very few participating retailers, but does have better online reviews than FreeShipping.com. It offers a 30-day free trial, but you need to enter a credit card in order to receive the trial.
Use Site-to-Store Shipping
Stores that sell products online, but also operate bricks and mortar stores may allow you to make a purchase online, but then pick it up in-store free of charge. Granted, it doesn’t get the item to your doorstep like the other shipping options, but it does get it from their website to your physical presence.
This is an important free shipping trick for two reasons. First, retailers sometimes offer lower prices on their website than what you find in-store. They typically do not honor that lower price via a price adjustment, but ask you to buy it online instead. Second, not only do you save the shipping cost, but you keep yourself from wandering the aisles of a store shopping, which minimizes impulse buying.
A few retailers that offer free site-to-store shipping include:
Use Coupon Codes
Now through New Year’s almost every online retailer will make shipping free at some point in time. These codes work like coupons for the grocery store, except they are for online shopping. Websites like Coupon Cabin, Retail Me Not and Minnesota-based Flamingo World aggregate these types of online shopping coupons; you search their database and may find a coupon code that, when entered at checkout, gives you free shipping (soon we will have a similar online shopping coupon database right here at Pocket Your Dollars).
Disclosure: This post contains one or more referral links that may yield commissions for Pocket Your Dollars.com at no cost to you. See Pocket Your Dollars’ disclosure statement for more details.
About Carrie Rocha
When we were in Nebraska, my mom bought our gifts from Walmart.com (she works there and gets a discount) and would just have them sent to our walmart and I’d wrap them for the kids. She still sent a few things to us, but saved a lot of shipping by sending it to the store.
Use the shortcut o.co instead of typing overstock.com and get free shipping on your first order.
LL Bean has free shipping with no minimum order. In addition, you get a $10 gift card for every purchase over $50.
I just ordered 2 nursing bras from JCPenny, and I DID have to pay for ship to site shipping, which was $2 less than shipping to my home. I was bummed. I used a coupon code for the $10 off $25, and I could get free shipping if I didn’t use that but instead using a free shipping code, but it was a better deal to do the 10 off 25. Is there another trick after using a money off code?
You may be able to use a coupon and get free ship to store if you call JCPenney directly to place your order. I did this last week and the lady I placed my order with said she usually does this. She helped me use a 25% off discount, get free shipping and use a $10 gift card.
Great to know–thank you! That was a good idea. Wish I’d thought of it! :)
I’ve shopped at Kohl’s FOREVER and did not know this until my most recent shopping trip–I was having trouble finding the correct size for my son and the store clerk told me to scan the item at the in store online kiosk, choose the correct size or color, add any discounts, payment and they will ship free to my home!!! It worked great and the pants came quickly. NO SHIPPING!! Wish I would have known about this before !:)
Eddie Bauer is similar to that. When you order in store you do not pay shipping but there is a $2 processing fee I believe.
I just bought a leaf blower at Home Depot online and picked up at the Store ( no shipping) you might want to add that option to your list.
Can’t believe you don’t have Targets debit card yet. I love it. 5% off adds up fast especially when buying diapers
Land’s End has great free shipping with no minimum order if you go into their store and use their computers. I ordered an extremely clearanced swimming suit this way, and also had the benefit of having a knowledgeable person there help me to make sure I ordered the correct size. It came to my home directly. I was so happy with that swim suit that I went back and did it again with another clearance suit.
Don’t forget that with a full $79 Amazon Prime acct you get free access to there digital library. You can also add 4 other people to your acct to receive the free shipping benefits.