Amazon Prime effect spreads! Many retailers in the United States follow suit and adopt paid membership

It is learned that according to foreign media reports, given the success of Amazon Prime, more and more retailers in the United States are beginning to adopt a paid membership model.

The report said that in recent years, many retailers have found that the loyalty programs they launched did not attract consumers or that consumers did not pay enough attention to them. Although the member benefits were the same, they still failed to generate good user stickiness.

Amazon took a different approach and launched the $79-a-year Prime membership program in 2005, pioneering the paid membership model.

Today, Prime membership has grown into the cornerstone of Amazon's retail ecosystem, and in 2011, Amazon also added Prime Video benefits to Prime members, which brought a huge impact. As of 2021, Amazon Prime has 200 million members, paying $119 per year or $12.99 per month. It does not disclose numbers, but membership fees alone generate billions of dollars.

The success of Amazon Prime has also attracted more and more retailers and brands to follow suit and adopt paid loyalty membership programs in order to seek the Amazon Prime effect.

For example, Best Buy tested a paid membership program earlier this year and announced in October the nationwide launch of the Best Buy Totaltech™ membership program, priced at $199 per year. It also promises to help members find hard-to-find items during the gift-giving season, which is very attractive in the current period of widespread inventory shortages.

Additionally, Costco has built an entire business model around its membership program, which provides members with significant discounts on bulk purchases.

For Amazon, the emergence of these imitators will bring greater competition. In order to stand out from the competition, Amazon is expected to make more new moves in its Prime membership program.

Editor ✎ Xiao Zhu/

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