Amazon may raise the price of its Prime membership by up to $40 for U.S. customers, the company said today during its quarterly earnings call.
Amazon’s Prime membership is an annual subscription that gives frequent shoppers “free” 2-day shipping on any item sold through the retail giant or one of its affiliate sellers. Prime members also gain access to Amazon’s Kindle e-book library-lending program and the Prime Instant Video service, which contains a collection of movies and TV shows that members can stream for free. Membership currently costs $79 per year, and the company hasn’t increased the price in nearly a decade.
During the earnings call, the company said it was looking into boosting the price of Prime membership by $20 to $40 in the next year or so. Amazon said the reason for the increase has to do with rising costs of shipping items as well as the fuel cost associated with it.
It’ll be interesting to see how customers react to a price increase. A $120 annual fee for Prime may turn off those that are only occasional Amazon shoppers. That’s assuming the company isn’t successful in making its Prime Instant Video and library-lending services more appealing on their own. However, if it can make Prime Instant Video as appealing as a Netflix subscription, consumers may not get sticker shock.
One possibility is that Amazon switches from charging annually for Prime, to charging either monthly or quarterly. My guess is that Amazon has distanced itself from this option because it makes it much easier for customers to compare what they purchased over the month versus the cost of membership.
Amazon CFO Thomas Szkutak shied away from whether the company would be open to breaking off its video service as a standalone subscription during the earnings call. I can’t imagine this would ever be an option since the video service’s main purpose is to get more people signed up for Prime, as VentureBeat previously reported. (I could possibly see the company breaking out an option where you might pay less for a membership that gives you only free 2-day shipping.)
The company didn’t offer an exact date for when Prime membership prices would increase.
You can split it several ways (6-8)? Only the main person gets the movies, but everyone else gets legit prime membership on their account. We paid $15 for it this year. Still an awesome deal even if I have to pay $20-25.
No. You can share it with up to four family members that live in the SAME HOUSEHOLD.
If you are doing anything else (and don't have the small business prime account), well, that's cheating. That is what raises prices for the rest of us.
So unless your other family members are your H and your children, what you are doing is not kosher IMO.
Post by EllieArroway on Jan 30, 2014 22:48:52 GMT -5
I don't think $10/month is too much. I shop there so much that it would be still worth it. I save more than $10/month on my Subscribe & Save orders compared to my local grocery store, and that's just a small portion of what I buy from Amazon.
They probably shouldn't raise it that much at once, though.
That would be too much for us. I don't use it often enough and rarely need the 2day shipping. Except when I needed my new scale right before the diet challenge started.
for that price, I'd move to Netflix for content. The two day shipping is nice, but not really needed for the stuff I buy. I would just wait until the amount of items in my cart qualified for free shipping
for that price, I'd move to Netflix for content. The two day shipping is nice, but not really needed for the stuff I buy. I would just wait until the amount of items in my cart qualified for free shipping
Yeah, this is already what I do, but I don't love Amazon. I use it when it makes sense, plus I live further from a distribution center so even the two-day rarely gets here in two days. But I bet they raise the free-shipping amount also if they raise prime.
If they want to use the AMazon Prime video library to justify this, they had better make it so I can stream via TiVo. I don't like being forced to sit in front of my TV to watch the content.
I don't think I would renew if they raised the price. Especially since two day shipping has become five business days shipping.
ETA and I LOVE Amazon. I think I would just wait until my cart was over $25 and get free shipping that way. The 2-day shipping is no longer a draw since it rarely happens.
$35 now.
I find the two-day shipping is hit or miss. Sometimes I order something and it's here less than 24 hours later. Other times it take several business days.
We love Prime on Roku but unless we ditch cable, I have a hard time believing we'd pay $120 on top of FiOS and Netflix, which has far more viewing options.
I would do $100. I'm not sure about $120. That seems kind of steep. If they did have to increase prices that much I think they should let people pay quarterly instead of yearly so you had some flexibility.
I'm not sure whether I'd keep it. I think I'd be more inclined to keep it if there were more Prime instant video options. I do love my two day shipping, though. I am close enough to a distribution center that I always get my stuff in 2 business days.
Hmmm...I probably get $10/month worth of value out of just kindle borrowing and the Kindle First free book once a month.
I'm pretty sure once shorti weans I won't be able to do nearly as much reading (I read when she nurses) so the chances that I'd pay that much are pretty slim.
Hmmm...I probably get $10/month worth of value out of just kindle borrowing and the Kindle First free book once a month.
I'm pretty sure once shorti weans I won't be able to do nearly as much reading (I read when she nurses) so the chances that I'd pay that much are pretty slim.
This was something I really missed once my son weaned. I didn't realize how much reading I got done while he was nursing, even though he was a power nurser.