Pros and Cons of Amazon Prime
Amazon's membership service comes with plenty of perks, but do you really need to pay for it?
By Samantha B. Gordon
Earlier this week, Amazon announced a new two-day sale coming in October. The Prime Early Access Sale, which falls on October 11-12, will kick off Amazon’s holiday shopping season. The retail giant has said that there will be hundreds of thousands of deals at their lowest prices of the year in virtually every category. But you have to be a Prime member to shop the sale.
Amazon is one of the largest retailers in the world, and a cornerstone of the company’s business model is its paid membership. Amazon Prime is a subscription-based service that provides users with a slew of benefits.
Members can pay monthly or annually to take advantage of these perks and services. Earlier this year, the retail giant raised the price of its membership from $12.99 per month to $14.99 per month. The annual membership climbed to $139 from $119.
The price of a membership for students also went up. If you’re taking at least one course at a college in the 50 states or Puerto Rico, you’ll now pay $69 for an annual Amazon Prime Student account—up from $59—or $7.49 (a dollar more) for a month-to-month membership.
Launched in 2005, Amazon’s membership service, Amazon Prime, has evolved to include a variety of benefits.
The main driver of Amazon Prime has always been free expedited shipping for over 100 million products, with many customers now eligible for one- and two-day shipping at no additional cost.
But membership also includes services such as Prime Video, unlimited cloud photo storage, exclusive access to deals and Prime-exclusive sales event like Prime Day and the Prime Early Access Sale, and discounts on grocery items in Whole Foods stores.
Over the summer, Amazon announced that its U.S. members can sign up for a free one-year GrubHub+ membership, which includes unlimited free delivery from local restaurants. After that year, members will be automatically charged the regular price of $9.99 per month.
Amazon has also partnered with the buy-now, pay-later credit provider Affirm, allowing customers in the U.S. to split the total cost of eligible purchases of $50 or more into monthly payments at checkout, with no late or hidden fees, according to the company filing in early February.
And back in April, Amazon announced yet another new service, Buy With Prime. This allows Prime members to take advantage of benefits like free shipping and returns when shopping at participating online stores.
How Amazon Prime Works
Since Amazon Prime started, the service has expanded into many other areas, including offering free streaming movies and music, rapid delivery options, and discounts on groceries.
You can sign up for a free 30-day trial to sample all the Prime benefits before committing to membership.
Amazon also offers Prime members an extra 10 percent off items at Whole Foods Markets, as well as additional price cuts each week on select products.
More Benefits
Free same-day delivery: Members qualify for free same-day delivery on more than 1 million items if they order at least $35 worth of goods, as well as 1- and 2-hour delivery with Prime Now (available in select cities) on tens of thousands of items.
Amazon Prime Day: Every year Amazon holds a major two-day sales event that rivals Black Friday, called Prime Day. This year the sale fell on July 12 and 13. To access the sale, which includes discounts on Amazon devices and popular products across a slew of categories, you must be a Prime member.
Prime Early Access Sale: This year, Amazon is adding a second two-day sale to the roster to get a head start on holiday shopping. This sale will take place October 11-12, and Amazon promises countless deals on popular products and brands. Consumer Reports is tracking it to help shoppers find the best deals during one of the biggest savings events of the year. As with Prime Day, you must have a Prime membership to shop the sale.
Lightning Deals: Members qualify for early access (30 minutes before everyone else) to short-term, deeply discounted Amazon Lightning Deals that often feature high-tech and fashion goods.
Prime Video: Membership includes instant access to tens of thousands of movies and TV shows, including Amazon original series. Amazon says Prime Video has tripled the number of Amazon Originals, rolling out new series and movies like “The Boys,” “The Wheel of Time,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “The Underground Railroad,” “Sound of Metal,” “Coming 2 America,” “The Tomorrow War,” and “Being the Ricardos.” This September, Prime Video will release the highly anticipated “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and become the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football” as part of an 11-year agreement with the National Football League. You can watch at home on your computer, Fire TV, or other compatible devices.
Amazon Music: Prime Music offers unlimited ad-free access to more than 1 million songs and thousands of playlists and stations. (Read more about Amazon Music and other music streaming services.)
Prime Photos: Secure unlimited photo storage in the Amazon Cloud Drive.
Prime Gaming: Members have access to a free Twitch channel subscription, as well as free games and in-game items.
Prime Reading: This new service has replaced the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. It gives Prime members access to over 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and more. All of these can be accessed on a Kindle or Fire tablet, or through the free Kindle app on both iOS and Android.
Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card: The Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card gives cardholders 5 percent back on purchases made on Amazon and at Whole Foods. If you don’t have a Prime membership, you get 3 percent back.
There are other benefits to using the card. You’ll get 2 percent back at gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores, and 1 percent back on any other purchases. There’s no annual fee, and if you use the card while traveling, there are no foreign transaction fees.
Amazon Pharmacy: A recent addition to the Prime benefits roster, this new service gives members a way to compare prices between Amazon and over 60,000 other pharmacies. You can either order directly from Amazon or use a Prime Rx Savings card at your preferred pharmacy.
Amazon Fresh: Amazon’s grocery delivery service allows Prime members to order their groceries online. This service used to cost an additional $15 per month but is now included in the cost of the full Prime membership.
Whole Foods: Like Amazon Fresh, Prime members can have groceries delivered from Whole Foods. But the two can’t be combined into one single delivery because they’re packaged in different places. Delivery is also free, but pickups can be scheduled as well. And Prime members can save an extra 10 percent off everything except alcohol whether shopping online or in-store. Plus, there are Prime-exclusive specials and sales.
Prime Now: With an Amazon Prime account, you can download a mobile app that allows customers in most parts of the country to shop from early morning to late night, seven days a week, for groceries, gifts, and food from neighborhood stores and restaurants. Delivery is free of charge within 2 hours or within 1 hour for a fee. For restaurant orders, delivery is free within an hour of ordering, and the service is available from Amazon-affiliated restaurants in select areas.
Buy With Prime: Prime benefits now extend beyond Amazon’s own site. Members are able to shop at participating merchants’ online stores and still enjoy free expedited shipping and free returns.
Amazon Family: The benefits include 20 percent off diapers through the site’s Subscribe & Save service and 15 percent off eligible products from your baby registry.
Amazon Household: Two adults living in the same household can create an Amazon Household to share certain Amazon Prime benefits and save money on membership fees. And you can add kids to the plan: Up to four teens and up to four children. Teens can shop, but parents must approve purchases. Adding children allows parents to manage parental controls on Fire tablets, Kindle E-readers, and Fire TV through Kindle FreeTime.
Amazon Key: In 2017, Amazon launched Amazon Key, which allows couriers to enter your home to drop off packages even when you’re not there. Amazon also allows you to have packages delivered to your car, as long as you have a Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, or Volvo made in 2015 or later. The cars also need to have an active OnStar or Volvo On Call account, and the service is available in only 37 cities. While Amazon Key requires you to pay $220 for a home smart lock and camera, there’s no installation charge to let couriers access the trunk of your car.
Amazon Day: Amazon added this feature to its Prime membership in 2019. Amazon Day offers consumers the option to schedule deliveries. If you know you’ll be home every Friday, for example, you can instruct Amazon to deliver all your packages that day. You can still choose to receive orders on other days and by one-day or two-day delivery if an item is needed sooner. This also allows Amazon to consolidate items into fewer boxes and cut down on the number of trips to your home, helping to reduce its carbon footprint. The company says it aims to make 50 percent of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030.
Why You Might Not Want a Membership
Of course, not everything about Amazon Prime is worth the membership. There’s the question of how often you shop on Amazon. If you aren’t ordering much or you don’t think you’ll take advantage of many of the services membership offers, you might as well pass.
If you’re unsure whether Prime is right for you, consider signing up for a free trial. You’ll have 30 days to give it a test drive. But take note: At the end of the trial period, your credit card will be charged the membership fee automatically for the next period unless you cancel in advance.
Paid members who haven’t used their benefits are eligible for a full refund. You can’t receive a refund if any household member has placed a Prime-eligible order.
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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with new information.
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