It’s already too late to benefit from the old Amazon Prime rate, before the rate increase scheduled for September 15. With the free trial month, it would have been necessary to subscribe before August 15th. A bad surprise for the start of the school year…
Bad news for those who were waiting for the last moment to take or renew the Amazon Prime subscription before the announced price increase, scheduled for September 15, 2022! In practice, it is already too late to benefit from the old price, because of the month of free trial, which distorts the situation. In fact, the e-commerce giant only really takes Prime subscription into account after the end of the trial, and therefore in October. Newcomers who wanted to take advantage of the old rate should have taken out an annual subscription before August 15…
As a reminder, Amazon Prime subscribers had learned the bad news by opening their mailbox on July 26. Indeed, they discovered there 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 increases from €5.99 to €6.99 – an increase of €1, or approximately 16.69%. The price of the annual Prime subscription increases 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 goes 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, the 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 recent release of the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – a highly anticipated series that drew more than 25 million viewers on its first day of launch – Amazon has never been more appealing.
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 are providing 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. 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).