Amazon Prime is one of three key pillars that CEO Jeff Bezos recently spoke of. It's arguably the most consumer-facing of the three (the other two being its retail marketplace and Amazon Web Services) but the fact that Amazon doesn't disclose its membership numbers leads to lots of analysis and speculation from third parties.
One of those, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), recently released an analysis of Prime membership patterns. What it reveals is astronomical conversion and retention rates that any company would envy.
For starters, CIRP found that 30-day free trial conversion to one-year paid membership rates have recovered following Amazon's price increase to $99 a year. Specifically, data indicates that 73 percent of trial members make the jump to paid members. Furthermore, 91 percent of first-year paid subscribers renew and 96 percent of second-year paid subscribers sign up for a third year.
If you recall, Amazon raised the price of its annual Prime membership from $79 to $99 in March 2014. The change was the first price increase in Prime's history but people still weren't happy. To combat the pushback, Amazon bolstered Prime's benefits by adding more streaming videos, offering a selection of free e-books, online photo storage and more.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out our article that delves into the many benefits of Amazon Prime (some of which aren't promoted as heavily as others).