The “Free AmazonGlobal Saver Shipping” deal allows you to ship your Amazon order to Singapore for free if you buy US$125 worth of products sold by Amazon.com that are eligible for the AmazonGlobal Program. How exactly do you know upfront (without going to the check-out page to see the shipping cost) if you will get free shipping on the product(s) you want to purchase?
Amazon recently made it extremely easy to check for the eligibility of getting the free shipping by allowing you to filter your search results to display only those items that are eligible for free international shipping to Singapore. You do have to limit your search results to a single department to access this filter option.
If you are in the product page, you can check the eligibility for free international shipping by first selecting your shipping address in the add to cart box. Then when you choose the specific option of the product (e.g. size, colour) that you want, eligibility for free international shipping will be indicated right next to the product price.
If you care to know, the most basic criteria for the eligibility to get this free shipping is that the product item must be “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com“. Many products are fulfilled by Amazon (i.e. ships from Amazon) but are sold by other merchants. You don’t get free shipping to Singapore on these products. Unfortunately, i found out that many items that i have attempted to buy, that are shipped and sold by Amazon, also turned out to be ineligible for the free shipping, for unknown reasons. It could be due to the product brand owner not wanting to allow parallel import, or complications involving some product categories, such as food.
On the “About FREE AmazonGlobal Saver Shipping” page, a guideline is given that states that “Offer does not apply to items larger than 18” x 14” x 8” or over 20 lbs.”. This is actually a very generous allowance. Imagine shipping an item that’s 9kg from the US via a courier service – it will cost you a bomb!
A point to note: the Amazon product page automatically selects the seller that offers the lowest price (inclusive of shipping fee), and this may supersede Amazon themselves. If you want to get free shipping to Singapore, you will have to buy from Amazon. Usually, the slightly higher price you pay to buy from Amazon is well worth it since you get free shipping to Singapore. See example below:
The item sold by Amazon ranks fourth place in terms of lowest price, but you should definitely click the “Add to Cart” button on the Amazon seller.
The shipments to Singapore are mostly handled by two courier services – UPS and i-parcel (apparently bought over by UPS as well). From experience, i-parcel delivery is faster. Unfortunately you don’t get to choose the courier service for your shipment. UPS now leaves your package at the Shell station nearest to your home in case the delivery attempt failed, which is a good idea. Anyway, there’s no reason to complain when you’re getting FREE shipping. Thank you Amazon.
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