Every year, consumers do more of their shopping online. And it’s no wonder. Shopping sites like Amazon.com make it easy to find the best prices in minutes, and cash-back sites like Rakuten enable you to get cash back on most purchases you make.
However, pesky shipping fees remain one of the biggest drawbacks to shopping online. Fortunately, you can avoid such costs with a little ingenuity.
Following are some ways to score free shipping on your online purchases.
1. Shop at the right retailers
There are numerous sites that offer free shipping on every order, every day of the year, as we detail in “28 Retailers That Offer Free Shipping With No Minimum — and No Membership.”
2. Pay for an annual membership
Yes, this sounds like a contradiction — paying to get free shipping. But if you shop online a lot, it may make sense to pony up for a subscription fee that will get you free shipping for a year.
Amazon Prime is probably the most famous example of this type of membership. Sign up for Prime and get free fast shipping on millions of items with no minimum purchase requirement. You’ll also get access to various other freebies and discounts. And in some cases, you actually can get Amazon Prime for free.
If you prefer Walmart over Amazon, you can get free shipping with no minimum — among other perks — by joining Walmart+.
3. Consider a store card
Some store-branded credit cards and debit cards also offer the perk of free shipping with no minimum purchase requirement.
If you have a Target Circle credit card, for example, you can get free two-day shipping on hundreds of thousands of items. And if you have a Macy’s Gold or Platinum credit card, you get free shipping with no minimum.
So if you have a favorite online retailer besides Target, you might want to look into whether it offers a store card with this perk. Just be sure to read the fine print before opening a new account so you’re aware of what you’re signing up for.
Want more than a store card? You can compare credit cards in the Money Talks News Solutions Center to make sure you’re picking the right one for you.
4. Use the ship-to-store option
This is a great way to cut your shipping costs. Let’s say you’re shopping on Best Buy’s website and find a great price on a paper shredder. Unfortunately, the item’s not in stock at your local store.
Best Buy offers a ship-to-store option where the item will be delivered to a store near you for free. Then you pick up the item once it’s at your selected store, usually in three to seven business days.
Other retailers offer a ship-to-store option. Check with your favorite retailer about its policy.
5. Shop around holidays
A little patience goes a long way toward getting free shipping.
Many retailers offer free shipping around retail holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as throughout the first half of December to lure people who procrastinated on their holiday gift shopping.
But don’t overlook other holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day and even Valentine’s Day and July Fourth.
6. Ask for free shipping
Sometimes, the best way to get free shipping is simply to ask for it.
You have nothing to lose by opening a chat window on a retailer’s website and asking for free shipping. Even if you don’t get free shipping, the retailer may offer up some other type of incentive.
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