Amazon Offers a New Prime Option: Monthly Membership

Since it launched in 2005, Amazon has offered its annual Prime membership plan for $99. That breaks down to $8.25 a month. This week the company launched two new subscription plans: a monthly Prime membership plan for $10.99 a month and a monthly Prime Video membership plan for $8.99. Neither requires an annual commitment.

The monthly Prime membership will include all of the same benefits you receive with an annual Prime plan, including free two-day shipping. The Prime Video membership includes all of Prime’s video content, but does not include the free shipping. Industry observers are calling the new video membership a direct challenge to Netflix and Hulu. With the success of critical hits like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon has worked to expand its Prime Video service over the past year and plans to release several more original series in 2016.

Though Amazon does not typically release specific Prime data, it has been estimated that there are at least 46 million U.S. members and that Prime members spend up to twice as much as non-Prime members in the course of a year. The e-tail giant has recently been making a number of competitive maneuvers designed to expand the reach of Prime. These include bundling Prime as a monthly service for Sprint mobile subscribers and making its Prime Now same-day delivery option more accessible by adding it in 11 new markets. And while the two new plans will cost consumers more than the original annual plan, they offer a way to ease into a Prime membership without a major commitment.

Source: Chain Store Age and Wired.com