CDON.COM offers CDON + for 299 SEK per year with free delivery over 100 SEK, a bonus after the year, unique discounts and VIP queue at customer service. Ellos.se has the premium membership for 199 SEK per year with free delivery and prioritized delivery, unique offers and longer purchase on approval. Sometimes there is also an offer to sign up for the membership for half the price and 50 % discount on a product. Amazon.com offers Prime for $79 per year, with free two day delivery on millions of products without a minimum order value, thousands of movies and TV shows to stream, and a digital library with Kindle books to borrow for free. Amazon has offered the Prime membership for 9 years, and it is mentioned that the yearly cost will increase for the first time since the launch. Bubbleroom.se has for example discounts, free delivery, priority sales and a free Glossybox for 199 kr for six months.
Myself, and a lot of people, think again if we have to pay 49 SEK in delivery fee, when the order itself might just be a couple of hundred SEK. Especially if it is a web store where you shop a lot, or should shop a lot if it wasn’t for the extra fees.
But should it cost anything. Some e-commerce sites, KappAhl for example, offers in their free membership bonus, discounts and free delivery if you spend over 400 SEK. A little bit more than some shops, but not an unusual order size. If I for example need to shop for 50 SEK more to get free delivery at a site, I will most likely add a product instead of paying most of it in delivery fees instead. In that case, I rather see it as a discount at the product that I need to buy to get free delivery. I won’t have to pay anything extra for the delivery and the company sells another product.
Babyshop.se and Oiidesign.se has offered free delivery for a long time to all customers, but has recently started to apply a minimum order value of 499 SEK, otherwise you need to pay for the delivery. It is constantly discussed how free delivery affects the sales, and whether it is to better to offer special discounts instead at different times. I have read a few comments about this, and it is not easy to start charging for something the customers are used to. A lot of the comments are that they might as well pay delivery fees to the small shops that offer more personal service to the same prices. In this case, a VIP membership might be a way to go.
And isn’t that what all forms of membership results in, loyal customers. If you already have paid for free delivery for a year, you might as well buy that new Blu-ray movie there compared to another shop where it might be a little cheaper, but you end up in paying extra for delivery. So, who profits the most of it, probably both buyer and seller consider it to be a good deal. The seller probably gets an order that wouldn’t be certain for that store, and the buyer think it’s a good deal, avoiding to pay extra for delivery, even if it ends up being more order for a year than was planned.
