History is shaped by our hands.

The smartest thing that Amazon.com ever did to boost sales is offer free Super Saver Shipping on orders more than $25. Granted, I don't have the financial statements in front of me that proves that statement. I'm just speaking from the mind of a consumer that has been persuaded to buy more stuff on more than one occasion so I can save money and not pay for shipping.

Here's the deal. If your order includes items that all ship from Amazon.com warehouses and not one of it's affiliates, and the order is more than $25, you can get 3-5 day shipping for free. What Amazon.com had found is that many people show up on the site, order a single CD or DVD, and that's it. Yeah, that's great to make a sale, but how can we get them to spend more? Easy. Institute a policy where a minimum purchase of $25 will get you free shipping. $25 is high enough to require the consumer to buy more than a single CD or DVD, but not too high to stop them from doing it. How hard is it to add another CD or DVD to the order? Who doesen't have a list longer than 1 book that they want to read? Impulse buy achieved.

And everyone feels good about it. Consumer feels good because they didn't pay for shipping, so they think they got a sweet deal. Amazon.com feels good because the return on the 2 purchases minus the shipping cost is still higher than the return on 1 purchase when the consumer pays for the shipping.

Its a pretty slick deal. One that I fall for nearly every time I order from Amazon.