3 Major Changes Amazon Is Making to Your Online Orders
Even if you still have a lineup of go-to brick-and-mortar stores you frequent, there’s a more than decent chance you’re a regular Amazon shopper, too. The online retailer is positively massive, posting $638 billion in sales in 2024 that showed an 11 percent increase from the previous year, according to a press release from the company. Undeniably, a big part of the draw is the convenience it offers by allowing you to pick up practically everything you could possibly need with a few taps or clicks and have it brought right to your door. But now, Amazon has announced it’s making a series of changes to its online orders that could affect your shopping experience.
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1. Free shipping with Prime is being restricted to one address.
If you signed up for a Prime account to take advantage of free shipping, you might want to take note. Amazon announced that it would discontinue its Prime Invitee Program, which allows members to share the perk with friends or family at different addresses as of Oct. 1, CNBC reports. The company says it will notify all affected accounts by Sept. 5 of the upcoming changes.
The updated policy means that anyone living in a different household will have to sign up for their own Prime account to avoid paying the added shipping fees on their orders. Instead, the company is transitioning the offering to Amazon Family, which will allow for one other adult, four children, and four teenagers at the same address to access the perk. The company says it defines a primary residence as “the address you consider to be your home and where you spend the majority of your time.”
2. There’s a brand new way to search for products.
It’s not usually very hard to find what you’re looking for on Amazon in a broad sense. But what if you’re looking for something fairly specific? Thanks to new technology, your phone’s camera could help you score your next purchase.
On Sept. 2, Amazon announced it was updating the Amazon Lens feature on its smartphone app and renaming it Lens Live. The feature—which allows customers to scan a physical item and use it in a search—will now incorporate AI and begin immediately showcasing products in real-time on a swipeable carousel displayed at the bottom of the screen.
The company says the updated feature will also allow customers to tap on specific items within view to focus on them, add products to their carts, or save them to their wish lists without ever having to leave the Amazon Lens screen.
The AI enhancement element of the tool will also add quick access to Rufus, which answers questions about products. The company says the new feature is “now available for tens of millions of U.S. customers in the Amazon Shopping app on iOS and will roll out to more U.S. customers soon.”
But don’t worry if you’re set in your ways: The traditional Amazon Lens app for scanning barcodes or uploading photos will still function.
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3. You can order fresh same-day groceries.
Amazon has long been a player in the grocery game thanks to its Amazon Fresh offering and its ownership of Whole Foods. Now, the company appears to be expanding its offerings to make it even easier for you to pick up the products you need without having to run out to the store.
Last month, the retailer announced it was adding same-day delivery service for thousands of perishable and fresh grocery items to more than 1,000 cities across the U.S., per a press release. The company clarified that it plans to more than double that number to more than 2,300 cities by the end of this year.
“The service offers customers the option to order from thousands of fresh grocery items—including produce, dairy, meat, seafood, baked goods, and frozen foods—at an incredible value alongside the millions of items such as everyday household essentials, electronics, and other products already available for Same-Day Delivery on Amazon.com,” the company wrote. “Customers can now order milk alongside electronics; oranges, apples, and potatoes with a mystery novel; and frozen pizza at the same time as tools for their next home improvement project—and check out with one cart and have everything delivered to their doorstep within hours.”
Prime members will have access to free delivery on fresh groceries on all orders $25 and over. Those without a membership will still be able to use the service with an added flat fee of $12.99 on all orders.
And don’t worry too much about that milk spoiling en route: Amazon says it will carefully coordinate these new deliveries with a “temperature-controlled fulfillment network” and by using the same insulated bags seen on Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh orders.