Amazon is raising the price of its Prime membership to $119. The company announced the price increase during its earnings call following the release of its 2018 first-quarter financial results which showed healthy figures for nearly all areas of the business, including revenue in excess of $51 billion.
Amazon states the Prime membership increase will first start to come into effect on May 11 which essentially means those who sign up for Prime after the May 11 date will be liable for the $119 cost compared to the $99 cost today. Those who already have an active Prime membership will not be excluded, however, the price rise for them will not come into effect for another month, on June 16. It is also worth noting these price changes are only relevant to Prime memberships in the US. It is understood that in spite of the healthy business signs declared this morning the costs associated with offering Prime has also been rising which has now led to this latest price increase.
Over the years Prime has gradually increased well beyond the standard two-day free delivery to include additional delivery-related aspects such as two-hour delivery with Prime Now, as well as a number of non-delivery benefits such as streaming movies and TV shows through Prime Video, music through Prime Music, and more. So although the price of the membership is going up, it does now offer more value than it ever has before, and certainly more than it did the last time the price was increased to $99 from $79 – in March of 2014. For those who order from Amazon frequently enough the shipping costs alone are likely to continue to make it worthwhile as the new price will essentially break down to exactly $10 per month. Even at the higher price, the annual cost still works out cheaper than the alternative $12.99 price for those who opt for a monthly Prime membership. According to Amazon, the monthly option cost will not be changing when the new pricing comes in and will therefore remain at $12.99. For those who have a student membership — and currently pay half the price for Prime — this is also rising on the same dates and sticking with the 50-percent off rate. Meaning, following May 11 for new members, and June 16 for existing ones, the student price will increase to $59 per year.
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