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from subscription service to brand loyalty
The price of Amazon Prime is going up again, and some people are mad about it. But not Amazon’s most loyal customers, who will likely not notice or care. Why?

The subscription service, which launched in 2005 at $79 per year, will now cost $139—a whopping 76% increase (inflation isn’t that high, is it?). You know what else has drastically increased? The value that customers get from being Amazon Prime members.

What started as a simple discounted shipping subscription now offers a mind-boggling bevy of benefits, including Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music, unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, free magazines and books with Prime Reading, discounts at Whole Foods, and oh yeah—free shipping on Amazon and free grocery delivery on Amazon Fresh. 

Did I mention that the free delivery service has steadily improved from two days (which itself was previously unheard of), to one day, to same day for many items? Or that Amazon Prime Video now has almost an endless array of award-winning exclusive TV shows and movies, plus a streaming license for NFL Thursday Night Football?

If you just strip out one of those benefits and compare it to a competitor—say, Amazon Prime Video vs. Netflix, or Amazon Prime Music vs. Apple Music, or Amazon Photos vs. Google Cloud Storage, that fee is looking even better, isn’t it?

What if we add in Amazon’s customer service, based on its six core tenets that include trusting customers and empowering employees? (Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is even known to personally review customer complaints.) I wrote about an incredible personal experience I had with Amazon customer service in my book, The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Share, available at, eh hem, Amazon (among other places).

Amazon’s customer experience still remains elusive to so many other retailers, who are stuck trying to outmaneuver Amazon when they should be focused on improving their own customer experience. This is why Amazon’s subscription service is really about brand loyalty.

The fact is, even at $139, Amazon Prime delivers one of the best values on the planet, and the value continues to increase at a faster pace than the price.

Now compare that to your credit card’s annual fee; when is the last time you received any increased value in return? How often have you seen the value increase in your cable service or alarm system monitoring or auto insurance? Yet the prices always manage to increase.

For me, the Amazon Prime annual fee is a no-brainer. I don’t think about it because I know I am getting so much value from the investment. If only every fee worked that way…

Disclaimer: The link to Dan’s book is an affiliate link, which means we receive a (very) small commission when you buy something using our link. The price you pay is not affected. If you are not yet an Amazon Prime member, you may sign up for a 30-day free trial (also an affiliate link).