Amazon Prime, the online retail giant’s annual fee-based membership program that offers its users certain perks like free shipping, video downloads, ebook borrows, and more, has seen a third quarter increase in the “millions,” according to a press release from the usually very tight-lipped company.
“It’s been a busy few months-we launched a new Paperwhite and new Kindle Fires to positive reviews and surprised people with the revolutionary Mayday button-average Mayday response times are just 11 seconds!” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, in a press release. “And that’s not all. In the last 90 days, our AWS team got back to work on a big government contract, we brought 8 million square feet of fulfillment center capacity online, deployed 1,382 Kiva robots in three FCs, provided a new venue for artists to reach customers, signed up millions of new Prime members, announced Kindle MatchBook, Login & Pay, and nine new original TV pilots, joined the Code.org coalition, acquired TenMarks-a company that helps kids with math, scored a win for customers who want to use Kindles on airplanes even during takeoff and landing (also, a big hat tip to Nick Bilton on that one), began hiring and training 70,000 new U.S. FC employees to help serve customers this holiday season, and saw the Kindle Million Club grow to include 14 KDP authors.”
Amazon recently raised the minimum purchase to receive free standard shipping from $25 to $35, making the $79 Prime membership rate all the more attractive an option. Prime members receive free 2nd-Day shipping on all of their purchases, without having to meet a minimum.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.