[jancsika]

> Much of what Amazon does is what other retailers already do.

Walmart and Costco subsidize free shipping by raising prices on the third party businesses who sell through them?

Because that's what the article is about.

[thayne]

The mechanics might be different, but the "free shipping" is still subsidized by driving the price of the product itself up. Either way, all consumers pay a higher price, so that a subset of them don't have to pay for shipping.

[Guvante]

Historically you are careful with free shipping to ensure the loss is less than say a retail cut of the price.

That is why minimum orders were so popular, if it cost say $8 to ship something and a retail margin is 15% I can do the math on a break even point where it is a wash or better for the vendor.

[tick_tock_tick]

Yes

[smt88]

Costco doesn't do this because they aren't a marketplace. They only sell products in their own inventory. They aren't gouging small sellers.