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Amazon is Raising the Price of Prime Monthly Memberships by Nearly 20 Percent (recode.net)

Posted by msmash on from the making-money dept.

Amazon is boosting the price of its monthly Prime membership fees for new and existing members by nearly 20%. The online retailer said Friday its annual membership fee of $99 will not change. From a report: The increase comes less than two years after Amazon first introduced the monthly payment option as a way to attract new Prime members who either couldn't afford the annual membership of $99, which is not increasing, or didn't want to commit to using the service continuously. Prime is the engine at the center of the Amazon commerce machine -- Prime members buy from Amazon more frequently than non-Prime members and also spend more, hence why Amazon introduced the monthly option to lure new members. So if the company is raising the fee, you can bet that it discovered the current $10.99 was just not sustainable.

6 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. The new price by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Informative

    The new price is $12.99/month if anyone was wondering.

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  2. Long-term lock-in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sustainable my ass. Now that they've got people hooked Amazon wants to make sure they don't leave again and lock them in for a full year.

    Bonus side effect: they get to charge people who cannot afford a lump sum of 100$ more. Being poor is expensive.

    1. Re:Long-term lock-in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think you understand just how slim some people's margins are. Something might come up one month that requires that $10 you were going to put into Prime (and $10 from groceries, and $10 from something else, and $10 from something else, and..).

      If you still want to argue that Prime is a luxury not an entitlement, by all means go ahead. But at least try to argue sensibly.

  3. Re:Not sustainable? by Espectr0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    of course it's sustainable, otherwise they would have raised the $99 yearly fee. The price hike is just to make some people to switch to the full year price, thinking they will get the better deal. It will work for some, and savvy people will only subscribe for november (black friday) and july (prime day)

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  4. Re:Not sustainable? by Kenja · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What seems to have been happening, is that people would order a pile of stuff and find that paying for one month of Prime cost less than shipping. So they would sign up and then cancel.

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  5. Re:What if.. by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Same with `flix and `lu.

    Does "Hulu" really need a 3-character abbreviation, 'onymous 'ward?

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