Amazon Prime Subscriptions Continue to Grow

Customers like Prime’s free shipping

January 21, 2016 | Retail & Ecommerce

The number of internet users living in a household with an Amazon Prime subscription has grown year over year, according to research. In December 2015, there were nearly 41 million US Amazon Prime households.

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Cowen and Company found that US Amazon Prime subscriptions grew from 30.9 million in December 2014 to 40.1 million in October 2015—and have steadily grown each month, reaching to 40.9 million in December 2015.

Additionally, of the US internet users surveyed in December 2014, 28.7% of respondents lived in a household that had a Prime membership. In December 2015, 38.0% of respondents had a membership.

The rise in Amazon Prime subscriptions is likely due to new products and features that Amazon’s Prime subscription offers, like Prime Now, which offers items like groceries or gifts within a 2-hour window or Prime Pantry, where members pay a flat $5.99 delivery fee for groceries and household items and get them delivered to their door.

Prime subscribers have been boosting Amazon’s profits. In its Q2 earnings report last year, Amazon reported a quarterly profit of $703 million for its North American business, and indicated that Prime was a big reason why.

And what draws consumers to Prime may be the free shipping. According to research from RBC Capital Markets, 78% of US Amazon Prime customers in 2015 said that free 2-day shipping was the primary reason they signed up for the service.