Amazon.co.uk has announced that starting today, free shipping will be available for delivery to customers in 17 European nations, as long as they spend over GBP 25 on their order.
Until last year, the UK was the only nation to receive free delivery, with Ireland joining in October 2009.
As of today, the service is extended to Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg and San Marino.
“Free delivery has been an important part of the great value Amazon shopping experience for many years and we are delighted to announce its availability to even more European customers in time for Christmas,” added Brian McBride, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk. “The aim is for European customers to be able to purchase anything they want to buy online at a low price from a vast selection of products. Now, tens of millions of customers in Europe can also benefit from delivery to their door, absolutely free of charge.”
Amazon UK has recently expanded its selection, adding electronics, home and garden, baby, watches, clothing, shoes, sports and leisure, health and beauty and tools sections.
Result for: shopping experience
The giant e-tailer Amazon has announced the launch of a new PC game download store that should move the company into a battle for market share against RealNetworks, Big Fish Games, and PopCap.
The store, available here, currently has over 600 downloadable games, with all priced at $6.99 to $9.99 USD.
As a promotion of the store, the company is offering three free full version games, “Jewel Quest 2,” “The Scruffs” and “Build A Lot.” Every other game comes with a free, 30-minute trial.
When asked whether Amazon had a chance to succeed in the now crowded online games market, Greg Hart, Amazon’s vice president of video games and software, added:
“Sure, sure. A great example is when Amazon.com entered the traditional retail video game space two and a half years ago… obviously that was a very competitive and crowded space, but we’ve been very happy with our growth in that space.”
“Certainly there is a lot of competition, and a lot of sites out there that do a very good job, but we think we bring a lot of things… certainly trust, and the convenience aspects… are all elements of the shopping experience that will carry over to casual game downloads very well.”
Result for: shopping experience
France’s largest retailer, the Carrefour Group has announced that they will be launching a movie download service that will allow customers to buy or rent movies and TV episodes.
The Group operates supermarkets and grocery stores around Europe that carry DVDs but wants to “expand its focus on entertainment, bringing it closer to customers.”
Carrefour’s international non-food chief, Christophe Geoffroy, said the “shopping experience would be simple and fast, with downloads taking about 3 minutes,” probably meaning that most videos could be streamed. He also noted that VOD (video on demand) market in Europe was not currently great but growth was expected. He cited analyst research which predicts “Europe’s movie download market will be worth over about 690 Euros (over $1 billion) by 2011.”
The announcement follows Tescos similar announcement last week in which they launched a music and video download site focusing on MP3 albums.
