‘They come for shipping. They stay for digital.’

Aaron Perrine, Amazon General Manager, 2018⁸

As part of a broader strategy to spread their tentacles across new sectors, Amazon has greatly bolstered the entertainment aspect of Prime. Let’s not forget that Amazon’s chief raison d’être, according to Doug Gurr, Amazon’s country manager for the UK,⁹ is ‘improving the shopping and entertainment experience for the consumer’. Amazon addressed the latter back in 2011 by adding unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of thousands of TV shows and films to its Prime offer. It has since taken greater control of production through its Amazon Studios subsidiary, offering Prime members exclusive content such as the TV shows Bosch, Transparent and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. Today, Prime Video is a viable competitor to Netflix. The service has helped to lock in loyalty by making the Prime bundle even more attractive while simultaneously feeding the flywheel. ‘When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes’, Bezos said.¹⁰

Table 3.1    Amazon membership benefits

Category	Amazon Prime Benefit
Ship	‘Free’ delivery on over 100 million items in two days or less
	‘Free’ same-day or one-day delivery on over 1 million items in 8,000 US cities and towns
	Release day delivery by 7pm on new videos, games‚ books, music, movies and more
	Prime Now one- to two-hour delivery
Stream	Prime Video: stream or download thousands of TV shows and movies
	Twitch Prime: perks for gamers such as free in-game loot every month
	Prime Music: stream over 2 million songs without any ads
	Prime Originals: Amazon-exclusive TV shows and movies such as The Marvellous Mrs Maisel
Shop	Whole Foods benefits: exclusive savings, 5% cash back with Visa card and two-hour delivery
	Alexa: voice shopping and reordering
	Just for Prime: early access to deals and exclusive access to own-label products
	Amazon Family: save 20% off diapers and baby food with five or more subscriptions
Read	Choose from over 1,000 top Kindle books, magazines, comics, kids’ books and more
	First reads: each month, download one of six editors’ picks for free ahead of publication
More	Earn 5% cashback with select credit cards; earn 2% rewards with Amazon Prime Reload
	Prime photos: unlimited photo storage

SOURCE Author research; Amazon, as of June 2018

And this isn’t just a US phenomenon. In Japan, for example, membership increased 16 per cent just three months after the launch of Prime Video. In India, where Amazon is heavily investing in Prime Video, Amazon added more new Prime members in its first year than any other market in the company’s history. In 2018, Amazon added its first entertainment benefit, Prime Reading, to its scheme in China.¹¹ The strength of the bundle proposition today makes it easier to drive member adoption and retention in international markets.

Convenience has always been the premise, but these days Amazon is taking this to the next level by granting access to an entire lifestyle of convenience. Want one-hour delivery? Want to use a Dash Button to reorder laundry detergent? Want to shop via Alexa? Want in-home or in-car deliveries? Guess what – you need to be a Prime member.