Not an Amazon Prime member? Your free shipping minimum just went up

U.S. customers who do not pay for Amazon Prime will have to shell out an additional $14 if they want to avoid shipping costs… unless they are buying books, that is.

The giant e-commerce retailer, Amazon.com, Inc. This move could spur more people to enroll in Prime, which provides members with unlimited free shipping on all orders for a $99 annual membership fee.

Amazon has upped the order price that online shoppers must pay to earn free shipping.

Less than three years ago, Amazon raised the minimum to $35, after years of a $25 minimum price to qualify for free shipping.

For a long time, a $25 order was the benchmark for free delivery. All orders of $49 or more of eligible items across any product category also qualify for FREE Shipping.

Until recently, that amount was $35, Bloomberg reports. With that said, the increase does not impact qualifying book orders, which still remain at the original $25 minimum for free shipping. The recent move is perhaps another push for its user-base to opt for the Amazon Prime subscription. In that case, shipment is still free for customers.

The company still spends more than it makes in shipping.

According to the company, its fulfillment costs soared almost 33% year-over-year (YoY) in the last reported earnings. In 2015 the company incurred $5 billion in net shipping costs, a 19 percent jump from the previous year and equivalent to about 5.1 percent of sales. It has now started to invest heavily on its own infrastructure, which includes opening more warehouses in densely populated regions, buying more trucks, retooling key brick-and-mortar retail locations, and injecting huge amount in new drone technology.