Free delivery above a threshold is an instruction to your basket

Comparisons of delivery thresholds usually pick a winner. This one picks the circumstances, which is more useful.

What a threshold is doing

A minimum spend for free delivery converts a delivery charge into a target, and targets change behaviour far more effectively than prices do. A shopper short of the line faces a choice between paying a charge and adding an item, and the item feels like the better outcome.

It is better only if the addition is something you wanted, which is precisely the condition the design does not require. Sellers set thresholds slightly above typical basket values for exactly this reason, since a threshold everyone already meets does nothing. The position of the line is a decision made from data about how much people usually spend.

The filler item problem

Adding a filler item to avoid a delivery charge is only worthwhile if the filler costs less than the charge and you will use it. In practice fillers are usually chosen quickly, from whatever is nearby in the interface, which is not how you would normally shop.

The result is regular small purchases of things that were never on any list, funded by a delivery charge you were trying to avoid. Where the filler is a consumable you certainly use, the tactic works and there is nothing wrong with it. Where it is not, you have paid more than the charge and received something you did not want.

Charges hidden in the item price

Sellers offering unconditional free delivery have moved the cost into the item prices, which is a legitimate choice with a consequence. It means small orders are subsidised by large ones and that item-level comparison across sellers with different policies is meaningless.

Tracked over a quarter, the only comparable figure remains the delivered total for the basket you actually intend to buy. This also explains why one seller looks cheaper on single items and more expensive on a full basket. Neither structure is dishonest, and both defeat casual comparison.

Subscription delivery schemes

Paid delivery memberships remove the threshold entirely, which changes shopping behaviour toward more frequent, smaller orders. That is the intended effect, and it raises the share of a household's purchasing that goes through one seller.

Whether such a scheme pays depends on order frequency, which is a fact about your household rather than about the scheme. The honest calculation compares annual membership cost against the delivery charges you would otherwise have paid.

Past frequency is the best available estimate, and it is usually visible in your order history.

Collection and other routes

Collection points and in-store pickup frequently remove the charge without any minimum spend, and they are commonly overlooked. Consolidating several planned purchases into one order is the honest version of reaching a threshold. Keeping a short list of genuinely needed low-cost items makes threshold-filling productive rather than wasteful.

Run the arithmetic and waiting a few days to combine orders costs nothing where nothing is urgent. Each of these achieves the threshold without inventing a purchase.

Consumer protection rules are national, and what is unlawful in one market is routine in another.

The one comparison that matters

Build the basket you actually want and compare the delivered total across sellers. Ignore both the item prices and the delivery policy, since they are two halves of the same number. If a seller is cheaper only because you would add filler to qualify, it is not cheaper.

And if you find yourself adding items at checkout regularly, the threshold is working on you rather than for you. The basket is the unit of comparison, not the item.

Side by side

The takeaway

Compare delivered totals for the basket you actually want, and keep a list of real items for the days you are short of the line.

The cheapest purchase is still the one you did not make.