Amazon Raising the Price of Prime to $119
Amazon.com is raising the price of its loyalty subscription service, Amazon Prime, from $99 to $119 per year. The company announced the price hike during a call with investors Thursday. The change will go into effect May 11, and will apply to Prime renewals beginning June 16. The change is the first time Amazon has upped the cost of an annual Prime subscription since 2014. The original price was $79 before it increased to $99 that year. The company already increased the cost of a monthly Prime membership earlier this year. That service, which is for users who don't want to commit to a full year, was hiked from $10.99 to $12.99.
Total Retail's Take: The rich appear to be soon getting richer. On the same day that Amazon reported first-quarter earnings that showed its profit more than doubled and sales continued to accelerate, it announced the Prime price increase. Boasting more than 100 million Prime members, a $20 price increase figures to add substantially to Amazon's bottom line. The retailer is justifying the price increase by noting that it has made a number of improvements to the service in recent years, including making more products available for two-day shipping as well as the addition of Prime Video. If the other 100 million-plus Prime members are anything like my household, they're not happy about the price increase, but they're no doubt going to pay it to continue receiving the benefits of free shipping. And Amazon knows this.
