Amazon Prime Sets Record In Terms Of US Subscribers

Amazon has something to cheer about this holiday season: a lot of Prime subscribers.

That’s according to Cowen Analyst John Blackledge, who estimated on Monday (Nov. 21) that Amazon’s Prime subscribers in the U.S. have climbed to 49.5 million, reaching an all-time high.

The analyst, who conducted a survey of 2,500 consumers, found Amazon Prime had 47 million customers in the third quarter, up 20 percent compared to the 40 million it had last year at this time.

What’s more, the analyst found Prime is accounting for a larger portion of Amazon’s total purchases, coming in at 57 percent in October of this year, which is up from 49 percent in the year-ago October. According to the analyst, 83 percent of Prime subscribers purchased items in October compared to 49 percent of Amazon shoppers who are not Prime members. Prime members also tended to shop across more categories, with the analysis finding they shopped on 3.8 verticals, on average, which is compared to 3.7 for non-Prime members.

Amazon may already be onto the fact that Prime members shop more. At the end of September, Amazon was accused of favoring big spenders and its Prime members.

A report from nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica revealed that the online retailer’s price comparison pages actually rank products in favor of items either sold by Amazon or by merchants who pay the company to ship products for them, Recode reported. Amazon sorts products by price, including the shipping fees, for some products but not for others. The products sold by third-party merchants that do not participate in Amazon’s shipping service were ranked based on the price and shipping price together. Those products sold directly by Amazon or the third-party merchants that participate in its shipping service were ranked without the shipping price, which made them show up on the price comparison page as much cheaper.

“We found that the practice earned Amazon-linked products higher rankings in more than 80 percent of cases. Amazon’s offer of the Loctite glue, a respectable number five on the comparison list, dropped to the 39th best deal when shipping was included. (The prices Amazon shows are ranked correctly for those who pay $99 per year for Amazon’s Prime shipping service and for those who are buying $49 or more in eligible items.),” ProPublica explained.