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Being an Amazon Prime customer will soon enable more perks, including outside Amazon’s platform. The e-commerce giant announced a service that allows third-party merchants to add a “Buy with Prime” button, offering free Prime deliveries and free returns on eligible items. Moreover, customers can also have their shipping and payment details filled in from their Amazon accounts.
“With the introduction of Buy with Prime, we’re expanding where members can enjoy trusted and convenient Prime shopping benefits beyond Amazon, adding even more value to their membership,” vice president of Amazon Prime, Jamil Ghani said in a press statement (via CNET). “Members will have the flexibility to shop from merchants directly, all while enjoying the fast, free delivery, seamless checkout, and easy returns they’ve come to know and love from Amazon.”
Amazon recently bumped the Prime subscription cost from $119/year to $139/year
The retailer will roll out this service throughout 2022 across the U.S. Amazon said it will begin this program with sellers who utilize the Fulfillment by Amazon service. According to the company, merchants who aren’t on Amazon or its dedicated fulfillment service will be eligible later.
This comes after Amazon recently decided to bump up the Prime membership cost from $119/year to $139/year. Shortly after, the retailer announced an increase in subscription prices for Prime members on Amazon Music Unlimited. Prime customers will pay $8.99/month or $89/year starting May 5, 2022. Interestingly, non-Prime customers will continue to pay $9.99/month for Amazon Music Unlimited. This means that Prime subscribers are only saving around $1 per month compared to non-Prime users on Amazon’s music streaming service.
Price increases are a common pattern in the tech industry. But with Prime discounts effectively shrinking as the subscription cost increases, the company has to find new and innovative ways to keep users on board. And letting customers access their Prime benefits outside of Amazon is certainly one way to do it.
Separately, Amazon is reportedly working on a music-oriented service called Amp. This service would reportedly allow users to host radio shows using licensed music. Think of this as a Clubhouse-style app, but with an emphasis on music. It’s still early days for this project, though, so it could be a while until we try it out.