Amazon to increase price of annual Amazon Prime membership plan.

Two days ago, Amazon released news that they will be increasing the price of their annual Prime membership plan. The membership will increase from $99 to $119, effective May 11, 2018. This is the first Prime price hike since March of 2014. The reason for the increase is being attributed to rising cost of service demands.

Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky released the following statement on the increase:
"The value of Prime to customers has never been greater. And the cost is also high, as we pointed out especially with shipping options and digital benefits, we continue to see rises in costs. So effective May 11, we're going to increase the price of our U.S. annual plan from $99 to $119 for new members. The new price will apply to renewals starting on June 16. Prime provides a unique combination of benefits, and we continue to invest in making this Prime program even more valuable for our members. As a reminder, we haven't increased the U.S. annual price Prime since our single increase, which was in March of 2014."

The popularity of Amazon Prime has increased significantly through the years, due to the following attractive features:

• Free two-day shipping
• Access to TV shows, movies, and music.
• Kindle Unlimited

Amazon Prime has over 100 million paid members throughout the globe. These existing Prime members will have until June 16 to renew their subscription at the current $99/yr price.

During the last couple of days, I been monitoring what people on social media had to say about the price hike. Surprisingly, many are on-board with the increase. The reason being that the free shipping balances out the increase, making the extra $20/yr worth it. Other people are outraged, threatening to discontinue their membership immediately.

As a Prime member, I have no problem paying an extra $20/yr on the membership. As a first time mom, I love the 2-day shipping incentive. Lord knows I can't have a delay in receiving diaper and formula shipments! LOL!

Readers: How do you feel about the price increase? Let me know in the comments below.

Source: CNBC

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