Instead of shelling out a $99 annual subscription fee, users now have the option of getting the benefits of the Prime loyalty program — free and faster shipping and streaming among them — for $10.99 a month.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Amazon says subscribers will be able to turn the subscriptions on and off if desired. That move is likely to drive up subscriptions during the Q4 holiday shopping season.
Prime has been a boon for the e-commerce giant. Prime customers spend more and more often on Amazon than non-Prime members because it makes buying on Amazon so convenient. Last year’s Prime Day drove hundreds of thousands of new Prime memberships as consumers looked to scoop up exclusive one-day deals. Amazon said that that momentum carried through the holidays.
A recent study from Piper Jaffray indicated that more than 50 percent of US households are Prime members. The data also showed that the higher the household income, the more likely a household has a Prime subscription. Among US households earning more than $112,000 per year, a whopping 70 percent have Prime memberships.
The monthly Prime option comes along with the announcement that Amazon will also offer a separate monthly streaming video subscription fee to compete head on with Netflix. The Amazon video streaming subscription launches at $8.99, a dollar less than Netflix’s $9.99 monthly charge.
The new monthly options went into effect Sunday night.
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