Amazon in the USA is offering some customers cash to pick up their purchases.

The online retail giant is offering $10 to select customers, as it looks to cut home delivery and returns costs, as reported by Retail Gazette.

Amazon has contacted an unknown number of Prime subscribers to offer the discount to pick up their orders of $25 or more at pick-up points including Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Kohl's stores.

It has also started to charge some customer $1 if they return packages via a UPS store if there is an Amazon pick-up or return location closer.

Amazon's fast, no-fee deliveries and returns has been key to its success, but it has been gradually introducing measures to help keep down the cost of deliveries. Last year, it raised the price of Amazon Prime, which includes free shipping, from £7.99 to £8.99 a month in the UK.

Punchline said: "There's no such thing as a free lunch and it seems there's no such thing as free delivery either. Offering customers $10 to collect their own shopping proves just how high the true cost of deliveries really is. This might only be happening in the US at the moment, but what happens over the Atlantic often has a way of making it to the UK. So watch this space!"