08-05-2015, 12:32 PM
quote:
Originally posted by David M
Another thing I noticed, if Free Shipping, but not Prime, I often get an email saying they don't ship to Hawaii.
Amazon has three main business models for selling hard goods:
1) Items they buy at wholesale and sell and ship directly.
2) Merchants who ship items to amazon that amazon sells directly and ships. (The merchant pays amazon storage and fulfillment fees (that include shipping costs))
3) Merchants who list items on amazon that amazon collects payment for, but the merchant stocks and ships the items (amazon charges them listing and fulfillment/processing fees).
Items 1-2 often qualify for "prime" because amazon ships the product, even when the merchant is paying to store the items being stored in amazon's warehouses.
Under #3, amazon has nothing to do with the shipping policies of the merchant, so often times they do not ship to Alaska/Hawaii. It's sort of like buying/selling on eBay "buy it now" except its a little less transparent that amazon is just a product lister and payment processor. Some of the products in #3 are actually shipped directly from China even though they have a USPS delivery confirmation/tracking number.