Amazon provides great value for its $99 per year Amazon Prime program, not only do you get access to a vast library of movies, TV shows, documentaries, music and much more, you also get free two-day shipping on Prime eligible items which are very easy to come by on Amazon. Over time the service really does pay for itself, but if Amazon decides to roll out a new program that it’s testing then not all Prime eligible products will be shipped in two days.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is testing a new program with some independent merchants called Ship by Region, the program allows certain sellers to decide regions where they are willing to ship products in two days to Prime members.
The merchants will be able to decide how far they will ship some items, such as big screen TVs, with the two day shipping guarantee that Prime provides. This means that if a Prime customer is outside that region they will have to wait longer and won’t get Prime’s basic benefit of free two-day shipping.
Amazon’s new test is currently limited to a group of sellers that are allowed to list items as Prime eligible even if they’re not stocked in the company’s own warehouses. We’ll have to wait and see if the results are favorable enough for Amazon to consider rolling this program out for everybody.
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