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Amazon Rival ShopRunner Offers Free Shipping For a Year to Ex-Amazon Prime Members

Unhappy shoprunner-300x257[1]about the price increase for Amazon Prime? ShopRunner has you covered.

This shipping service, which offers free two-day shipping across 85 retail sites including GNC, PetSmart, Neiman Marcus, and Toys R Us, launched a new offer today that is available only to Amazon Prime members.

ShopRunner is giving away free one-year memberships, and it’s only available to Amazon Prime members. The offer went live earlier today, and as you can see if you scroll to the bottom of the webpage ShopRunner has a simple set of instructions for proving that you have an Amazon Prime membership.

"If anyone feels that Amazon isn’t filling your needs, you are welcome to try ShopRunner," said Fiona Dias, ShopRunner’s chief strategy officer, in an interview. "It is our guess that there is a fairly decent chunk of Amazon Prime members who will decide it’s not for them anymore."

In a move that came as a surprise to no one, Amazon raised the price of the US Prime member ship today from $79 to $99. This is the first time Amazon increased the price since the service launched in 2005, and Amazon pinned the increase on fuel and transportation costs.

Dias said it is not disingenuous to blame shipping costs on the increase since that is valid, but it’s also not the whole story. "It’s a matter of proportion," she said. "Sure, shipping has gone up over the years, but the tens of millions they are spending on video to go after Netflix, that’s a much bigger investment in money and resources, so I think that’s what’s driving the price increase."

In October the Philadelphia-based ShopRunner raised $206 million in a new funding round to rival Amazon from investors which included the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and American Express.

In addition to free shipping, this service also offers free returns, though of course ShopRunner doesn’t offer the free streaming video or the free Kindle ebook loans included in Amazon Prime,  so this deal might not be for everyone.

You can sign up for the offer here. I strongly urge you to do so; even if you don’t plan to give up your Prime membership getting something for free is a nice deal. (Just be sure to sign up with Shoprunners before you renew your Amazon prime membership.) ShopRunner normally costs $79 a year.

Geekwire

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Comments


Chris Meadows March 13, 2014 um 5:25 pm

Nice. That means not only two-day shipping from sites like NewEgg.com, but also no delivery fees for ordering instant delivery from Domino’s Pizza. Oh yeah, I’m gonna use that.

(And set a reminder in my calender to tell me when to cancel it.)

Nate Hoffelder March 13, 2014 um 5:26 pm

Unless ShopRunner also pays the tip it’s still not free pizza delivery.


pidgeon92 March 13, 2014 um 10:15 pm

I saw on the site that it’s free for American Express cardholders in the US, so I signed up. Of the 85 retailers, I only shop at 3, and pretty rarely at that. Hopefully they’ll add more.


Juli Monroe March 14, 2014 um 8:22 am

I like their comparison chart. Some of them were humorous. Like the "you know Netflix is better" comment.

I go back and forth on cancelling Netflix. Most of what I want is in Amazon Prime streaming, but just enough isn’t to make me waffle.

Nate Hoffelder March 14, 2014 um 8:36 am

I know what you mean. It took me a while to cancel netflix.

I had Netflix for several years, but as I ran out of DVDs to watch I slowly reduced my membership. Then Netflix split the memberships, so I went streaming only. I cancelled that about a year later because there simply wasn’t enough to keep me interested.

For the longest time I didn’t pay for any streaming service; the only TV I watched were 2 or 3 new shows, most of which were on Hulu.

I only discovered the value of Amazon Prime streaming in December 2012 when I was computer-less for 2 days while the files were being synced from the old device to the new. The browsing and viewing experience on the Kindle Fire HD is significantly better than on regular Android tablets.

Amazon might not have everything but they have enough to keep me entertained.

Tyler March 14, 2014 um 12:07 pm

I end up subscribe to Netflix about twice a year to see stuff that is not on Amazon Prime. I like watching movies in bed with my Kindle Fire 8.9 HD while my daughter typically monopolizes the telly. The picture is great and the stereo sound perfect for such conditions.


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