Amazon shopper beware: Your purchase may become a monthly recurring delivery | Features News

For some customers, Amazon’s default shopping option has been changed to “Subscribe & Save” for certain products, which can lead to unwanted recurring deliveries. This option offers discounts, but if not carefully checked, it can be mistaken for a one-time purchase.

Before making a purchase on Amazon, carefully watch the Buy Now and Subscribe Now buttons (representative image)

Amazon allows its customers to save on products by subscribing to a recurring monthly delivery. The available delivery options usually range from one month to six months. The subscription system is a convenient way to receive deliveries of items that need to be ordered regularly.

However, the e-commerce platform offers it as a default purchase option for some customers. This means that if you are not careful during the purchasing process, you could end up receiving shipments of the same product every month.

Be careful

The default purchase option for any item on Amazon was “One-time Purchase,” which was accompanied by “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons. The “Subscribe & Save” button option is right below the “One-time Purchase” option. It usually offers a 5% discount compared to the other purchase method and a 10-15% discount depending on the quantity and number of months of subscription. This purchase option does not have any “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button, but does display a “Subscribe Now” button.

Because the distinction is so obvious, it’s very unlikely that a savvy shopper won’t notice if you’re buying a product as a one-time purchase or if you’re on a monthly subscription. However, if you’re in a hurry or aren’t paying attention, there’s a chance you could mistakenly buy a subscription when the option is offered by default. Either way, it’s definitely annoying.

During our tests, the default option for products and customers kept changing. In my case, the default method changed to “Subscribe & Save” only for things like toilet paper rolls. Meanwhile, it changed for other things, like apple cider vinegar.

Bait and exploit

Changing your default purchase option is nothing new. A Reddit post from four years ago discussed the same change on Amazon US. Users in the comments agreed that they had seen the default change and criticized the move. One user said his grandmother was “scammed” into subscribing to a product where she received the same lotion for three months in a row. She then told the user about getting the stuff “for free,” at which point he canceled his subscription and Amazon issued two refunds.

Meanwhile, others have explained an exploit where you can simply sign up for a delivery to take advantage of an additional 5% discount, and then cancel future deliveries once you receive the product. One user even pointed out that “Subscribe and Save” is not a contract, but simply a delivery date. It’s worth noting that Amazon clearly states that you can cancel your subscription at any time. It even claims to remind customers before every delivery.

Amazon automatically selects the subscription option when you try to purchase a single product, hoping you won’t notice.
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Business-friendly interface designs

Internet companies often decide on projects that are beneficial to them. The extreme version of this phenomenon is called Dark Patterns and is defined as deceptive design elements and design tactics that trick users into making unintended decisions. For this reason, subscribing to the service is always easy, but unsubscribing is extremely difficult. Changing the default shopping method on Amazon from “one-time purchase” to “Subscribe and save” is close to the scope of such patterns.