Amazon ups Prime's value again
Amazon has added another perk to Prime, a nationwide expansion of its Prime Book Box subscription, Retail Dive reports. The service delivers curated boxes of children's books geared to specific ages every one, two, or three months depending on the customer's selection.BI Intelligence
Boxes cost $22.99 each, and children aged 0-2 get four board books in each box while those in the 3-5, 6-8, or 9-12 age brackets get two hardcover books. Amazon editors select the contents of each box, but subscribers are able to adjust the contents before they're sent out.
Prime Book Box's expansion represents a move by Amazon to maintain its stranglehold on the book market. Making Prime Book Box available to all Prime subscribers, in addition to the continuedexpansion of its physical bookstores, Amazon Books, shows that the e-tailer is continuing to exert force in the market where it got its start.
With that said, there is no shortage of challengers, with the most recent addition being Walmart, which entered the e-book market last week through a partnership with Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten's e-book arm, Rakuten Kobo. Despite the competition, Amazon has a very tenable lead, as it was responsible for 45.5% of print book sales and 83% of e-book sales in the US in 2017, according to a report from Author Earnings in early 2017.
Prime Book Box is the latest in a recent string of efforts to add to the value of Amazon Prime. Amazon has been working hard to make the package of benefits available through Amazon Prime too tempting for consumers to pass up. It has added a series of Whole Foods perks for Prime Members, including expanding delivery through Prime Now in July and rolling out curbside grocery pickup earlier this month.
It also launched its try-before-you-buy (TBYB) apparel service, Prime Wardrobe, across the US in June. The bundle of benefits Prime subscribers receive has grown to the point where analysts from JPMorgan estimated in May that Prime is worth $784 per year, a great deal more than its price tag, even given its recent price increase to $119 per year.
While the book box subscription is yet another exclusive Prime perk, it's questionable how much value benefits with this pricing model add to Prime. Prime Book Box costs $22.99 on top of Prime's subscription fee, which may make it less attractive to members who are used to getting perks like fast shipping and Prime Video at no extra cost.
As Amazon fleshes out the reasons to join Prime, it should take care to find a balance between how attractive a benefit is, whether to charge extra for it, and how much to charge in order to maximize the value each perk adds to the overall package.
It also launched its try-before-you-buy (TBYB) apparel service, Prime Wardrobe, across the US in June. The bundle of benefits Prime subscribers receive has grown to the point where analysts from JPMorgan estimated in May that Prime is worth $784 per year, a great deal more than its price tag, even given its recent price increase to $119 per year.
While the book box subscription is yet another exclusive Prime perk, it's questionable how much value benefits with this pricing model add to Prime. Prime Book Box costs $22.99 on top of Prime's subscription fee, which may make it less attractive to members who are used to getting perks like fast shipping and Prime Video at no extra cost.
As Amazon fleshes out the reasons to join Prime, it should take care to find a balance between how attractive a benefit is, whether to charge extra for it, and how much to charge in order to maximize the value each perk adds to the overall package.
News Source: Business Insider
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