Amazon UK Announces Free Delivery for 17 European Countries

Posted October 11, 2010 07:04 AM by Juan Calonge


Amazon.co.uk today introduced its free delivery service for customers in 17 European countries, both inside and outside the European Union. As of today, millions of items from Amazon UK's stores are eligible for free delivery, which is available on all orders over £25 (GBP25) - about €28.6 at the current exchange rate. In October 2009, Ireland became the first country outside the UK to benefit from free delivery at Amazon UK. From today, the service is available in Spain and a further 16 countries around Europe including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino and Sweden. Before today, European customers incurred delivery rates that depended on the type of article and the country. For example, for a Spanish buyer buying Blu-ray movies from Amazon UK, shipping was £0.49 per item and £1.49 per delivery. Note that neither France nor Germany are eligible for free shipping from Amazon UK, probably to avoid cannibalizing their local sites. "Free delivery has been an important part of the great value Amazon shopping experience for many years and we are delighted to announce its availability to even more European customers in time for Christmas," said Brian McBride, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. "The aim is for European customers to be able to purchase anything they want to buy online at a low price from a vast selection of products. Now, tens of millions of customers in Europe can also benefit from delivery to their door, absolutely free of charge." Last year, Amazon.co.uk extended its offer to customers across Europe to include a wider selection of products from stores including electronics, home & garden, baby, jewellery & watches, clothing & shoes, sports & leisure, health & beauty and DIY & tools. Previously, customers across Europe could only purchase items from the books, music, dvd & video, software & videogames and toys stores. Now, items from all these stores can also be shipped for free on orders over GBP25 to a further 17 countries across Europe. European customers can also take advantage of Amazon Currency Converter™. Customers using a Visa or MasterCard issued in Euros, Danish Krone, Norwegian Krone or Swedish Krona can pay in that currency at Amazon.co.uk. The exchange rate is displayed at the time of ordering, so customers know exactly what they are paying in their preferred currency rather than having to wait for their card statement. For more information on Amazon.co.uk's delivery services, including terms and conditions for free delivery and eligible products, please visit Amazon's help page.
Source: Amazon \| Permalink \|

News comments (33 comments)

demiscy

Oct 11, 2010

Yay for CYPRUS !

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Nielsb90

Oct 11, 2010

YES! Free delivery to Denmark! Luv ya Amazon

Sidewinder

Oct 11, 2010

Nay for Switzerland ;(

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toddly6666

Oct 11, 2010

Why can't Amazon France and Amazon Germany have cheap shipping to USA too?

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Kaminari

Oct 11, 2010

No France, no Germany? How's that for EU?

Jesus F. Christ...

Sidewinder

Oct 11, 2010

@ Kaminari

Must be because of amazon.fr and amazon.de

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Stu123

Oct 11, 2010

I like the cardboard packaging,much better than a jiggy bag.I go anywhere that's the cheapest though and have found it varies alot on each title.

JimDiGriz

Oct 11, 2010

Now can Amazon US follow suit for us in the UK?

cmay13

Oct 11, 2010

now if amazon uk can just cut its shipping price to the us..

Q?

Oct 11, 2010

Well... I hope that means I can have free shipping too, since Greenland is somewhat a part of Denmark still.

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FlixLov3r

Oct 11, 2010

Yay, thx Amazon uk for including Sweden. :P

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This is excellent news. You'll still need to pay the extra VAT for the EU countries with higher rates, but this helps a lot. Especially since the additional VAT was calculated on the shipping costs as well.

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aGsu

Oct 11, 2010

Denmark, Norway, Sweden but not Finland? That makes me sad...

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Grubert

Oct 11, 2010

aGsu, even though Finland isn't listed in the press release, I've heard it qualifies as well - try adding £25 worth of stuff to your cart and see if you get the option of Super Saver shipping.

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wilfred2009

Oct 11, 2010

@Gsu, check Amazon site..Finland does qualify!

classicfilmcollector

Oct 11, 2010

everyone loves the UK

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aGsu

Oct 11, 2010

Yay, you're right, thanks guys!

Miles

Oct 11, 2010

Here's the complete list:

Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Andorra, Finland, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Vatican city, Poland

It looks like they specifically added all the smallest countries in Europe to make the list longer

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luwanda

Oct 11, 2010

After 150 orders i'll save a few euros, yay! :P

TotoroDragon

Oct 11, 2010

Its good for those that benefit,Hopefully Amazon.com follows suit with Free postage to The UK.

I would guess France and Germany are excluded because they have there own dedicated sites.

Its that or tit for tat.I can't see either site giving free delivery to The UK.

The EU does not even recognise The UK as a part of Europe or The Union anyway.

They take but we get very little back.

*I will not go off topic to reply to you,but you will hear from me soon fella*

Dwigt

Oct 11, 2010

I live in France. Orders from Amazon Uk (or Amazon Germany) are actually sent by the French Post. Amazon must have their own shipping system between countries and warehouses, then use the local Post. It's actually a better delivery system as there's for instance no tracking for parcels sent through the Royal Mail to another country, which means more "losses".

Having the same shipping prices for French and German people could kill our local sites. If shipments are free as long as you're over €20, the British pound is currently quite weak compared to the euro, which means that apart from the delays, there would be no incentive to buy there.

@ TotoroDragon The EU DOES recognize the UK as a member. What are you smoking? UK opted out of the Schengen convention and the common currency but there are no other differences for British citizens outside of that.

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insomniac013

Oct 11, 2010

Just noticed last night when i pre-ordered Back to The Future! It said Free Super Saver Delivery for Denmark! Sweet, go Amazon!! I wish they did that a long time ago... All the money i couldve saved. xD

penguin

Oct 11, 2010

The cost of shipping from amazon.de and amazon.fr to the UK, (and anywhere else), is outrageous and a huge disincentive to buy from them. they could improve their sales a lot if postage was more reasonable

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Konrad

Oct 11, 2010

Austria is of course not included. Held hostage by amazon.de I guess. Tough luck, but even with shipping charges I go for the UK product as it has the original title on the cover. And it is still cheaper even with shipping.

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RBBrittain

Oct 11, 2010

@Dwigt: That's normal for international mail; it usually starts with the origin country's postal service (Royal Mail or Deutsche Post), then is ultimately transferred to your postal service (French Post, or in my case USPS). It may also originate with a consolidator (i.e., Amazon UK now uses DHL Global Mail for some US orders; TNT also acts as a consolidator for many European e-tailers), but if it's mail it's still delivered by your OWN postal service. (That's important here in the States as our duty-free allowance of US$200 per day applies *ONLY* to USPS deliveries--whether originated by Royal Mail, DHL Global Mail, or anyone else.)

You're absolutely right about the UK being an EU member even though they opted out of Schengen and the eurozone. (Ireland opted out of Schengen--mainly to protect their existing arrangements with the UK--but not the eurozone.) Orders to other EU countries still have VAT included in the bill (including an adjustment from UK rates to your own country's rates) and don't pay duties; non-EU orders (including the US) still have VAT deducted regardless of rates. It would be nice if they had free shipping to the US, but I'd rather see Amazon.fr and Amazon.de cut their high shipping rates to the States.

scratchy

Oct 11, 2010

This is why I love amazon.

Celerony

Oct 11, 2010

Great, now I can just order something without worrying about efficiently spreading the shipping costs over multiple items. (you still got credit card costs, of course, but that's peanuts compared to shipping costs)

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DaveSimonH

Oct 11, 2010

lol it wasnt too long ago that the UK didn't even have free shipping

koontz1973

Oct 12, 2010

Good going Amazon. That will help a lot of people.
Should get it for Hungary soon then as it is not on the current list.

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MikaLove

Oct 12, 2010

I'd much rather love to see US Amazon have free shipping worldwide. I very rarely order from UK Amazon, because the US titles tend to offer so much more on all formats. Or some titles may not even exist in the UK/Europe.
The few BD titles I ordered yet from the UK are the X-Men trilogy and Milk.
Free shipping from the US to Europe seems however like a Utopia. Plus, there are custom charges anyway for larger orders, but it would greatly help and I personally would import lots more.
From the US I have so far bought 6 (+1) BD titles, whereof half of those are multiple movie box sets. About $340, incl shipping but excl taxes. If I didn't have to pay shipping for that it would have been $290. So $50 in shipping, or almost 15 %. Plus that shipping costs are included when they add the taxes, if any. So in real life, that could mean that a box set may be 50 % more expensive than the price on Amazon, when shipping and taxes are paid.

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are1981

Oct 26, 2010

I just got FREE SUPER SAVER DELIVERY when buying total only was 18.65!!!

Delivery Method: FREE Super Saver Delivery
Delivery Preference: Group my items into as few deliveries as possible
Subtotal of Items: £18.65
Postage & Packing: £0.00
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Total: £18.65
Promotional Gift Certificates: -£0.00
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Total for this order: £18.65