This is how it works with filling articles and vouchers
Amazon is now making it more difficult for customers than before to find items that cost a few cents to achieve certain order values. It still works like this.
Amazon customers know the problem: They have a promotional voucher that Amazon has tied to certain minimum order values, for example, or as a non-Prime customer the amount of 29 euros that must be exceeded to receive free delivery. Sometimes the goods you want to order are cheaper, so that shipping costs would otherwise be incurred – and free delivery does not come into one for everyone packing station in question.
You can remedy this by ordering a filling item, i.e. an item that costs a few cents and whose price is lower than the shipping costs, which otherwise usually amount to 2.99 euros. But there are a few things to consider. For example, you have to ensure that the goods come from an Amazon warehouse, i.e. come from Amazon or are sent by a fulfilled-by-Amazon provider.
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This is how you can find a suitable filling item
But finding such a filling item for a few cents is now more complicated than it used to be. Unlike before, you can no longer have all books in a category sorted by price. First of all, you should therefore think about which area the filling item should come from – beauty and drugstore items or food and beverages as well as household goods are a good entry point for items in the cent range. Now select a sub-category and then the lowest price range from 0 euros in the price filter on the left. Only now will you find a sorting function at the top right where you can also choose “price in ascending order”.
In order to only find the articles that are suitable for this purpose, you can check the box next to “Amazon Prime”. This is how you sort out all items that have been placed by third-party retailers with low goods prices and expensive shipping costs in order to attract more attention.
Another easy option is the Amazon private label “Every day”, which is now the Amazon counterpart to private labels in stationary food retail. If you enter this brand in the search and also sort by value of goods, you will quickly find goods that you can also use in everyday life (and not throw away any nine-cent books right out of the box, as in the past): From Garbage bags about Pasta or Tomato sauce up to chocolate and Peanuts you can quickly find the right article to reach the minimum order or voucher value here.
tip: As a hardcore Swabian, you could now choose the five-time subscription instead of the one-time delivery and save another five percent on the filling item. You can also cancel the subscription immediately after the first delivery, but this falls under the (so far) tolerated gray area at Amazon.
Waste avoidance doesn’t always work at Amazon
However, Amazon has still not solved a problem with regard to sustainability: It can happen to you that the actual goods and the filling items come in separate packages, even if they come from the same warehouse and are delivered to you with the same logistician. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always help to try to receive the goods on the same delivery day. Amazon explains that they are trying to get fewer packages, but for reasons of efficiency they do not always do so.
While these loopholes exist, customers shouldn’t overdo it. Because such a solution will certainly only not be fixed as long as Amazon does not determine any excessive abuse here. The same applies to the regulation of Amazon, Not reclaiming returns for some low-priced goods.
