Amazon has just announced a big change for its Prime formula, with major price increases in September, for both monthly and annual subscriptions. Very bad news in this period of generalized inflation.
It was a very bad surprise that Amazon Prime subscribers had when they opened their mailbox on July 26. Indeed, they discovered an email from the American giant informing them of a “significant change” of their subscription from September 15, 2022. In this case a not really painless price increase. Thus, the price of the monthly Prime subscription will increase from €5.99 to €6.99 – an increase of €1, or approximately 16.69%. The price of the annual Prime subscription will increase from €49 to €69.90 – an increase of approximately €20, or 42.65%. Ditto for the Prime Student formula – reserved for students under 24 –, the price of which will go from €2.99 to €3.49 per month and from €24 to €34.95 per year. This was to be expected, after the increase in subscriptions in the United States in March 2022. France is not the only country in Europe to be concerned since this is also the case for Germany, l Spain, Italy and England – where the annual subscription increases to 95 books, or around €112.
Amazon Prime: an increase of nearly 43% for one year
Until now, this loyalty program has been particularly advantageous, especially when compared to competitive offers, even Netflix or Disney + taking into account the amount of services it contains. In fact, Amazon Prime makes deliveries free and priority – some products can be delivered the same evening! –, offers access to the video-on-demand service (Prime Video), to 2 million music titles to listen to offline (Prime Music), to a selection of digital books (Prime Reading) and video games (Prime Gaming ).
The new strategy put in place by the platform seems to push consumers to favor a monthly subscription, which only undergoes a “small” increase. But despite appearances – it must be said that an increase of €20 is somewhat impressive – the annual subscription is more interesting than the monthly subscription. For the year, the monthly subscription costs €83.88 instead of €69.90. The annual subscription therefore saves € 13.98 each year.
Amazon Prime: a constantly enriched loyalty program
Amazon justifies this price increase by “the increase in operating costs of Prime in France“, in particular because of a “increase in shipping costs” and “packing costs“, but also by “improvement of the Prime program.” “We are focused on constantly improving the Prime program. Since we launched Prime in France, we have expanded the selection of products eligible for Prime unlimited fast delivery; added and expanded fast grocery delivery; and added more premium digital entertainment, including TV shows and movies on Prime Video, music on Amazon Music Prime, games on Prime Gaming and books on Prime Reading. Prime Video, in particular, has increased the number of Amazon Original series and films and added access to streaming the French Open tournament.,” explains the American firm. It must be said that with the recent redesign of the Prime Video interface and the release of the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on September 2 – a highly anticipated series that will attract many fans of JRR Tolkien’s universe – Amazon has never been so attractive.
As you can imagine, the announcement sparked a wave of discontent on social networks, especially on Twitter. The company doesn’t seem worried, however, because, “from what we have seen in the United States, there has been no opt-out phenomenon [désengagement] because we provide more and more services via Prime and this service, despite everything, allows consumers to make extremely significant savings“, she explains at AFP. But what is true in the United States is not automatically so elsewhere, particularly in France. And it is possible that many prefer to cancel their subscription before the increase, especially in this period of generalized inflation…
Don’t panic though. First, because it is still possible to benefit from the current annual rate of €49 by subscribing before September 15, just to take advantage of it for a year. Then, because current subscribers who refuse to pay more can unsubscribe at any time, before renewing their commitment – the subscription renewal date is accessible from their account. And, following a request from the European Union, terminating a Prime account is now much easier than before (see our article).