Amazon’s Prime subscription provides massive benefits covering entertainment, discounts, packaging, and product delivery for Amazon sellers and customers.
It has over 200 million subscribers, and as a seller, you can’t afford to let all these potential customers go under your radar.
Amazon Prime has come a long way compared to its release 20 years ago. Understanding Amazon’s growth is knowing how the Prime subscription has expanded. The following timeline will help you keep up with Prime’s evolution and comprehend what changes might affect your customer’s purchasing decisions.
Amazon Prime Timeline
2005 – Amazon Prime
Amazon launched its Prime subscription in 2005. It costs $79 per year and offers unlimited 2-day delivery for thousands of stock items.
2006 – Fulfilled By Amazon
In 2006 Amazon launched Fulfilled By Amazon. When a seller signs to this program, Amazon stocks and delivers products for different fees. These depend on the size and space used in Amazon’s warehouse.
The main benefit of signing to Amazon’s FBA is that these products become eligible for Amazon Prime, thus gaining many potential customers looking for fast deliveries.
2011 – Prime Video
Prime Video is Amazon’s streaming service for movies and TV series. It was launched in 2011 and includes thousands of titles available for Amazon Prime members. Some of these titles are blockbusters created by Amazon and exclusive to this streaming service.
You can subscribe to Prime Video only –without the other Prime benefits- for $8.99 a month.
2014 – Changes all around
2014 was a year full of changes. First and foremost, Amazon raised its annual Prime fee from $79 to $99. With this new price, other services were added to the subscription:
- Prime Pantry was a Program exclusive to Prime members. It allowed you to ship up to 45 pounds of household essentials for a flat fee of $6.
- Amazon Music is an online music and podcast streaming service that costs $9.99 as an individual membership. Music Prime is also available to all Prime members and offers access to millions of songs, high-quality audio, and offline play. Its free version provides a reduced experience. It’s ad-supported and lacks offline play. You can access playlists and albums but can’t choose individual songs, among other limitations.
- Amazon Photos is a cloud storage service that lets you upload and manage your photos. It has individual plans starting from $1.99. For Prime members, it provides unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5GB of video storage.
- Amazon Now was a unique service that delivered select essentials to Prime members within a two-hour window.
2015 – Amazon Prime Day
As a celebration of Amazon’s 20th anniversary, the company created Amazon Prime Day. This was a 24-hour-long celebration where Amazon offered Prime members exclusive deals on hundreds of products. These discounts were comparable to Black Friday.
Prime members ordered 34.4 million items in those 24 hours. For sellers subscribed to Amazon’s FBA program, the success was even bigger. Their unit sales shot up to a 300% increase.
The celebration was so successful that Amazon had turned it into an every-year tradition.
2016 – Prime Reading
Amazon released Prime Reading, a program that immediately allows Prime members to read thousands of e-books, magazines, and audiobooks for free. You can download up to 10 books at a time and read them on any device that supports the Kindle app.
Prime Day this year surpassed Prime Day 2015 by more than 60% worldwide. It was a record-breaking day for Amazon devices sales, as they were sold nearly 3 times more than the previous year.
2017 – More benefits
Amazon released some extensive exclusive services:
- Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card is a credit card with exclusive benefits for Prime members. It returns an effective 5% cash-back rate on both Amazon (and Whole Foods) purchases. Select purchases will return 10% or even more.
- Prime Wardrobe is a service with no extra cost to Prime members. Customers can place an order for up to six pieces of clothing, which will then be delivered to their home for a trial period of a seven-day window to try on all the items.
- Amazon Key is a Prime-only delivery service where approved shippers deliver products to a designated location, including homes, PO boxes, or car trunks during specific timeframes. You have to be able to open your garage door with the myQ app. See more info about Amazon Key here.
Prime Day 2017 was the first ever to last 30 hours in total. Not only that but other countries like Mexico and China were added to the celebration. As a result, sales grew over 50% compared to the previous year.
In 2017, Amazon also acquired Whole Foods, which would offer exclusive Prime benefits. One year later, Amazon increased the Prime subscription price from $99 to $119.
2019 – New benefits
Amazon added new benefits to the Prime subscription:
- With Amazon Day, members can choose a preferred delivery option where Amazon would deliver items on the same day each week.
- Amazon Fresh allows free grocery delivery to Prime members in selected cities.
- Prime Free One Day allows members a no minimum purchase amount on millions of products.
- Additional discounts on Subscribe and Save orders.
In 2019 Amazon broke new records with Prime Day. This time it lasted 48 hours, from July 15 to 16. Amazon sold 175 million items and surpassed the sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Prime members saved up to $1 billion throughout the whole event.
2020 – Covid and Gaming
Amazon expanded same-day deliveries to new states: Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, and Dallas.
After recovering from the problems Covid brought to distribution lines, Amazon transformed Twitch Prime into Prime Gaming. Now Prime members receive free games, exclusive in-game loot, and a free subscription on the Twitch streaming platform.
Even with the pandemic, 2020’s Prime Day managed to be a success. It wrapped up with $3.5 billion sold in 19 countries. This was an increase of 60% compared to 2019. Prime members saved up to $1.4 billion on thousands of products, many from small and medium businesses.
2021 – Expansion and discontinuations
Amazon acquired MGM movie studio in a compromise to release more exclusive content on Prime Video.
Amazon also discontinued Amazon Pantry and Amazon Now in 2021.
2022 – Price increase and Venmo
The cost of an Amazon Prime yearly subscription increased from $119 to $139, while the monthly membership fee has been raised from $12.99 to $14.99.
Prime Day 2022 was a success. Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide and saved more than $1.7 billion. Over 100.000 products were sold per second in 20 countries. These were: the US, the UK, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Poland, and Sweden. Prime Day deals events were later held for the first time in India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2022 Amazon also included the option to pay for your products with Venmo. It adds a layer of encryption to your debit card data that would otherwise not be available. However, when paying by Venmo, you won’t earn rewards on your purchase.
2023 – Prime day
Prime Day 2023 was the biggest Amazon event ever. The first day of Prime Day, July 11, was the company history’s single largest sales day. Prime members saved over $2.5 billion across millions of deals, more than any previous Prime Day event. It was a great year for 3p sellers, too, as their sales growth on the platform outpaced Amazon’s retail business.
The best-selling categories were fashion, beauty, and home. Through the whole event, Prime members purchased over 375 million items worldwide.
Conclusion
As you can see, the Amazon Prime subscription has evolved immensely over the years. Benefits and services have been added, and their prices have risen along with them. The numbers speak for themselves. Prime’s success is undeniable, and it’s a key factor in Amazon’s quest to be the king of eCommerce.
BellaVix can help you reach more of Prime’s millions of potential customers by improving your visibility on Amazon and growing your business as an effective competitor.
Keep up with the latest Amazon and Walmart news updates and subscribe to our BellaVix newsletter 👇👇👇