Saturday, December 24, 2011

Problem with Amazon: Order sent in multiple packages despite the "Groupmy items into as few shipments as possible" option

Most freight forwarding services like Shipito charge for package consolidation. Shipito charges $2 per consolidated package if you use a paid Virtual Mailbox plan ($50/year or $10/month). To avoid additional consolidation charges always use the "Group my items into as few shipments as possible" option on Amazon.


How to select "Group my items into as few shipments as possible" on Amazon



  1. Add all the items to your cart.

  2. When asked, select "Group my items into as few shipments as possible" as your shipping preference.

    Amazon: Shipping Details: "Group my items into as few shipments as possible"

If you don't care about consolidation fees prefer to ship faster, choose the "Ship my items as soon as possible (additional shipping charges may apply)" option instead.

How do I take advantage of FREE Super Saver Shipping?



  1. Place over $25 of eligible Amazon products in your Shopping Cart. Eligible items will say "FREE Super Saver Shipping..." next to their price:

    Amazon: Free super saver shipping

  2. Proceed to checkout.

  3. Ship your items to a single U.S. address.

  4. Select Super Saver Shipping as your shipping speed. Please note that your order will take an additional 3 to 5 days to ship.

  5. Select "Group my items into as few shipments as possible" as your shipping preference.

  6. Place your order, and enjoy the free shipping.


Problems with "Group my items into as few shipments as possible" option


If you make a single order on Amazon, there are several reasons why you may get it in multiple packages:

  • Amazon has a marketplace. Orders from many sellers of the marketplace are not fulfilled and shipped by Amazon itself.

  • Some items are shipped from different Amazon fulfillment centers.

  • Orders marked as gifts may arrive as several packages.

But this list is not complete. For example, I ordered 4 toys from Amazon last week. All these toys were fulfilled and shipped by Amazon. All 4 toys would fit into a 26x13x13 box. But Amazon has sent these toys in 3 packages, although they were sent from the same fulfillment center and all of them were shipped the same day! So the following message about quicker service can be disappointing despite what Amazon thinks about it:
Greetings from Amazon.com, We thought you'd like to know that we shipped this portion of your order separately to give you quicker service. You won't be charged any extra shipping fees, and the remainder of your order will follow as soon as those items become available.



If you use Shipito for sending packages overseas, you can always upgrade your free service plan to the Virtual Mailbox to enable package consolidation. But when using any freight forwarder you should always keep in your mind that you may get multiple packages instead of just one.

How to combine multiple Amazon orders into the same shipment


When possible, Amazon tries to combine multiple orders into the same shipment. This helps Amazon to reduce the number of packages they need to send to you, so you receive fewer packages and have less packaging material to dispose of when you receive your orders.


Amazon tries to combine multiple orders into the same shipment if the orders meet the following criteria:

  • Multiple orders are placed through the same customer account

  • The orders are being shipped to the same address.

  • Items from each order are located at the same Amazon fulfillment center.

  • The orders are shipping at around the same time.



There are some cases when Amazon won't be able to combine shipments. For instance, they may not be able to combine the following types of orders:

  • Orders that can't be shipped from the same fulfillment center to meet your promised delivery date.

  • Orders shipping from different fulfillment centers.

  • Orders being shipped to different addresses.

  • Orders being shipped to an international shipping address.

  • Orders marked as gifts.

Amazon will also try to combine orders for items that are placed via 1-Click ordering into a single order if the orders are placed in the same 30-minute time period.

No comments:

Post a Comment