Amazon hikes price on Prime memberships — when you’ll be affected

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Amazon is hiking the price of its Prime membership program that includes free shipping benefits and access to its streaming service, among other perks.

The service is changing to $139 a year or $14.99 a month.

That’s up from $119 a year or $12.99 a month.

Amazon cites increased worker wages, shipping and delivery costs as well as what it frames as increased benefits for Prime members, perhaps mostly notably its continued investment in original video content.

The new price takes affect for new signups Feb. 18, 2022. Existing members will see the new price reflected when their membership renews after March 25, 2022.

Prime is perhaps best known for that video streaming content along with expedited shipping benefits on millions of eligible items Amazon sells.

Amazon has an estimated 200 million Prime subscribers globally, about 150 million of those in the U.S. Not all members pay full price; there are reduced price options for students, for example.

However, it’s likely Amazon rakes in tens of billions of dollars in revenue from Prime membership fees alone.

The program has also proven successful for boosting sales of physical items the company sells, with the average Prime membership generating an estimated $3,000 in sales throughout the year, according to Morgan Stanley. That’s twice as much as non members.

The program likely boosts loyalty to Amazon with the free shipping, while also encouraging members to delve deeper into other add on subscription services and buying Amazon gadgets such as Echos and Kindles.

Benefits for full price members also include Amazon Prime Video, a streaming service that the company has invested billions of dollars in developing original content for.

Other Prime benefits include use of Amazon Key in-garage delivery, free access to select books and music, access to same day delivery on select products and grocery items and access to a premium version of video game streaming service Twitch.

Prime was originally $79 a year when it was introduced in 2005, so it’s almost doubled over the course of about 17 years.