Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is a subscription membership to Amazon that offers customers premium services for a yearly or monthly fee.

Amazon Prime provides discounts on shipping, a free membership to Prime Video, Twitch Prime, Amazon Drive and thirty minutes early access to Lightning Deals for a yearly subscription fee. As of 2017, Amazon Prime had approximately 80 million subscribers.

The popular benefit of Amazon Prime is free two-day shipping, but there are a number of Amazon-specific and partnered benefits. For example, the free shipping offer comes with no minimum order size and applies to millions of eligible items. In cases where a customer is not in a hurry, they can opt out of two-day shipping for a credit that can be used towards digital purchases such as ebooks and online movie rentals.

Prime Video is Amazon’s streaming video service included with membership and offers titles exclusive to Amazon. Twitch Prime gives customers a free channel subscription to a video game streamer of their choice, plus numerous discounts and free in-game content for many popular titles. Amazon Drive subscription offers unlimited storage for files and the access to those files anywhere. Prime Student is offered to college students or anyone with a .EDU email address domain at a discounted price.

As a paid loyalty rewards program, Amazon Prime has made it increasingly likely that customers will make more of their purchases through the site. As of this writing, a year-long subscription to Amazon Prime is $99. Customers can also subscribe monthly, or pay for individual services like Prime Video without the full membership.