Amazon is bringing back Black Friday discounts for its Amazon Prime members on Tuesday July 12. Jefferson Graham reports. USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — For the first time, the majority of Amazon’s customers in the United States belong to its Prime membership program, according to estimates by Chicago-based Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
The program had 63 million U.S. members at the end of June, bringing it to 52% of all Amazon customers in the United States, CIRP estimates. That’s an increase of 19 million members from a year ago.
As Amazon (AMZN) preps its Prime Day sales event on Tuesday, the estimate may blunt one criticism from potential shoppers: that it’s only available to Prime members, who typically pay $99 for the service.
Amazon does not release its own numbers for Prime members, who get free two-day shipping, as well as access to free streaming video and audio and other services. In a growing number of cities, free one-day and sometimes two-hour delivery is also available.
Prime customers are vital to Amazon’s bottom line because they are more lucrative for the Seattle company. They spend on average about $1,200 per year, compared to about $500 per year for non-members, according to CIRP.
CEO Jeff Bezos said in the company’s annual letter this year that he wants to make the service indispensable. “We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member,” Bezos wrote.
Prime’s numbers grew 43% in the past twelve months, up from 44 million in June of 2015. That’s in part because Prime is broadening its offerings, said Mike Levin, co-founder of CIRP.
“Amazon has expanded its media offerings greatly, including exclusive video content, HBO programs, streaming music, and now personal photo storage. Prime also offers a much richer environment for Amazon device owners, with access to free Kindle books, the improved video library for Fire TV, and Prime music and shopping tightly integrated into the Alexa service on Echo devices,” he said.
CIRP’s findings were based on surveys of 500 U.S. subjects who made a purchase at Amazon.com in the period from April to June 2016.
