Amazon Gives Medicaid Recipients Discount on Prime

Amazon.com is offering a discount on its Prime membership to the millions of Medicaid recipients in the U.S., according to media reports, taking another step to wooing lower-income shoppers and keeping pressure on Walmart Inc. Under the offer, customers on Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income Americans, can get Amazon Prime for $5.99 a month, or less than half the new regular monthly fee of $12.99, according to reports in Recode and The New York Times.

Total Retail's Take: This is another example of Amazon targeting lower-income shoppers, a demographic that Walmart (and other traditional brick-and-mortar retailers) has traditionally fared very well with. Last June, Amazon announced that it would lower the price of its Prime loyalty program for shoppers who receive government assistance in the form of an electronic benefits transfer card. By making its Prime loyalty program more affordable for lower-income shoppers, Amazon is trying to not only take market share away from its top competitor, Walmart, but also convert those newly acquired consumers into loyal repeat customers.