Amazon Raises Prime Membership Fee to $119 USD
Sad news for online shoppers in the US.
Amazon has had a really good month — it now has over 100 million Prime members, it’s now worth more than Alphabet, and its quarterly profits doubled to $1.6 billion USD. In spite of all of that, Jeff Bezos‘ booming e-commerce platform has only bad news for its customers — its Prime membership fee is increasing from $99 to $119 USD per year in the U.S.
The 20 percent price hike will go into effect on May 11 and will apply to existing Prime members’ renewals on June 16 (i.e. if your regular renewal is on or after June 16, you will have to pay the new fee of $119 USD). According to Amazon CFO Brian Olsavky, the reason for the Prime price hike is due to the rising “cost value of the [Prime] program,” which offers free shipping perks, same-day delivery, exclusive sales and video streaming.
This is the second time Amazon has increased the price of its annual Prime membership fee since it was first launched in 2005. The first price increase was from $79 to $99 USD in 2014. “We still feel this is the best deal in retail and we work to make it better and better every day,” Olsavsky said during an earnings call with analysts.
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