A few months ago I decided to sign up for Amazon Prime, the $79/year membership which brings free 2 day shipping and free streaming access to Amazon's media archive and Kindle library. I had a large number of orders that I needed within a few days, so I figured I'd take the plunge with their one-month free trial offer. I could always cancel after my large order and in the meantime I'd get free two-day shipping, which was the immediate need. Here's my observations three months later...
Initial Experiences
Signing up was easy, but it turns out actually getting to use the free two-day shipping was a little harder than anticipated. While Amazon touts "FREE two-day shipping on millions of items" as a perk of membership, they sell quite a lot more millions of items that aren't eligible, largely through their Marketplace and certain partners.
The direct impact for me, of course, was having to pay for shipping costs when I was expecting free shipping. Adding two-day shipping for all of my products to arrive in time added even more cost on top of the already disappointing paid shipping. As hurtful to the wallet as the extra shipping costs were, the biggest difficulty/annoyance was the difficulty of price comparison. While you can sort by pricing, it doesn't take into account shipping costs on products ineligible for Prime free two-day or even Super Saver free ground shipping.
I had to thoroughly compare pricing with and without shipping from multiple Amazon vendors, as well as test for shipping price adjustments on grouped items from the same vendors. This was not fun, and for all the effort I probably saved quite a bit of money at the expense of quite a bit of time, which isn't a very effective use of anyone's time.
After my initial order, I've had chance to try other features of Amazon Prime as well, as compare and consider its value. Here are my further thoughts!
Membership Fees
After your free one-month trial there's a $79 membership fee to become part of Amazon Prime. It's not a totally unreasonable fee if you order a lot from Amazon and want things to arrive quickly. Consider, though, if you were to just pay for two-day shipping yourself, you'd need to still order quite a bit to get to the $79 point of the program paying for itself. A full account does allow you to share your shipping benefits with up to 4 additional family members or coworkers.
Amazon also offers Student and Mom programs to go along with their standard Amazon Prime offering. As a student the price drops to a quite reasonable $39 and you're eligible for additional student discounts where available. Amazon Mom ups the free membership to 3 months and does not include Prime Instant Videos, but does come with 20% off diapers and wipes subscriptions!
One neat little secret is that Amazon often offers you credits to your account during checkout if you opt out of free two-day shipping for a slower, more cost-effective option. The amounts are small but if you don't need specific items in a hurry, it's a good way to slowly earn back your membership fee. Very slowly.
No New Taxes
It might not be for much longer (or at all in certain states) but we can enjoy the cost savings of no taxes for online orders for a little bit longer.
Free Two-Day Shipping
The best thing about free two-day shipping is that it no longer makes you worry about making single large orders of items grouped together to minimize shipping costs. Before you had to ensure you hit the $25 minimum for free Super Saver shipping, not to mention it took a week before anything arrived. If free shipping wasn't available you'd want to buy multiple things from a single vendor to get the best shipping prices.
Now with Amazon Prime you can generally just order any single item, no matter how big or small, anytime you want without consideration for other factors such as shipping. You want it? Just order it, and two days later it's there. It's convenience and impulse buying in your pocket with a smartphone. You think or hear of something and bam, you've ordered it already. Plus two-days is almost fast enough to always consider online ordering versus going to the store for instant gratification
Instant Video
One of the benefits of Amazon Prime is access to the Instant Video library. Instant Video is like Apple TV, where you pay for access to streaming television and movie content online. Amazon Prime Instant Video provides partial access to a selection of Instant Video Content. I had tried Instant Video in the past and it was a fairly decent experience if you consider watching a movie at your desk at the office (shh, don't tell anyone) a good time (well, compared to working it sure is). I had received a free credit from Amazon and it was a smooth and enjoyable experience watching a fairly recently released movie in high quality.
I was particularly excited about Prime Instant Video after picking up a Roku 2 XS this past Black Friday shopping weekend (when did a single day spill out over a week/weekend?), and was immediately disappointed at the available selection. Sure, there were some big name movies like The Avengers and Iron Man 2, but their top movies section looked like an 80's or 90's Blockbuster aisle. The selection of free content quite frankly sucks. I could still pay for and stream newer/better content, but the point being it was supposed to be included with my paid Amazon Prime membership. What a let down.
Free Kindle Library
Amazon Prime has additional features to help justify its price tag. Members can borrow a Kindle Book every month with no due dates. Avid readers might be itching for more with only a single book per month, but for casual readers that's actually a fun perk.
In Conclusion
At $79, you would have to order quite a lot and always select two-day shipping to make up for the cost of entry into Amazon Prime. At the student rate it's quite reasonable to join the program. If the Prime Instant Video selection were larger I'd say Amazon Prime would be a slam dunk, providing free two-day shipping with a Netflix-like streaming video experience, but alas, the library isn't great. Not everything is eligible for free shipping, much less 2-day as well.
It's a fun idea though, and if I can manage to switch my full $79 account to my wife's $39 student option then I'll stick with it for sure. We'll see how I feel after a year, but so far it's really just pre-paying for two-day shipping. Maybe if I force myself to watch some more old movies and start borrowing Kindle books I'll feel a little better about what really boils down to the $79 price of entry probably being a *tad too high.
(Images: Flickr members drewgstephens licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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Amazon prime is so worth it. Usually the things that do sell that aren't prime, combine with shipping end up being more than what amazon sells their items and you get the guaranteed delivery in 2 days. I usually just click on prime eligible only filter during my searches. Additionally, I can not tell you how many times the 3.99 for overnight shipping has saved my butt.
I agree on the Prime Instant Video movie selection - lots of awfulness .. but check out the TV side of things. That's where it really shines.
Another huge benefit to Prime is not worrying about shipping delays around the holidays.
To fully take advantage of Prime, the key is to understand you can get almost anything you want - from dish soap to paper clips. I even purchased my 2 kayaks via Prime!
I agree, I buy almost everything on Amazon... from toiletries to electronics. And the 3.99 overnight is amazing and sometimes that can cost almost the price of a year's prime membership! I also bought a MATTRESS delivered next day for $3.99! Come on. It also helps when you end up returning items because you don't have to buy for shipping both times, just returning.
Prime is worth it. I buy a lot from Amazon and having another video source for my Roku always is a plus! I'm on the 7.99 a month deal with them for Prime now (used to do the yearly price). While a little more over the course of the year - I can choose to stop it at anytime and it works better for me than 79 all at once.
If you buy a lot of stuff online, or think you will, Prime is awesome. Not having to think about shipping or adding more items to get free shipping is nice. Lately they've been offering some $$ credit for their digital store if you choose "slower shipping". I think the video side of the house will get better in time, but I see it as a bonus to skipping seeing shipping charges.
They have a $7.99 a month option for Prime? I hadn't heard about that. I realize you spend more in the long run, but i can't afford to plop $80 at once.
Amazon Prime is completely worth it. We've had it for years now. It's a great thing because when you buy smaller items, it might not be enough to add up to free shipping, plus you don't want to wait 5 to 7 days for something unless you have to.
I've had Amazon Mom in the past and am considering regular Prime right now and I agree with the others here --- worth it!
But I do worry about the amount fuel and cardboard used to ship all that stuff.
On the other hand, I am not driving around from store to store so . . . perhaps it's a wash?
I'd love to know the real answer to that. Like, I bought these reusable produce bags on Amazon to use when grocery shopping. But by the time they are shipped from manufacturer to Amazon wherehouse to me (with different packaging each time), how many times would I have to use them as opposed to just using the thin plastic sacks at the grocery store?
Honestly, it's so confusing trying to be a good green citizen sometimes, and I don't have tons of time to resarch this stuff.
I guess that's why "reduce" is the most important word in the "reduce, reuse, recycle" trilogy.
Confession time - I watched every episode of Dawson's Creek for "free" and season one of Downton Abbey. Having missed the creek while it was on TV I wanted to catch up on a little Americana and got hooked immediately, could watch all day long if I wanted, without having the bother of waiting for the DVDs to arrive from Blockbuster.
The PRIME Library is great if you love British Comedys and Dramas and Mysteries. and many other popular US tv series.
NOTE TO AMAZON - WHERE IS HOMELAND 2?????
For non free TV shows, the SEASON PASS is a tad cheaper per episode than iTunes' shows. Although I hate that there are exclusives on some tv shows with iTunes first and then Amazon much later or not at all.
Am at the point where I basically refuse to watch live commercial tv unless I absolutely have to - between DVR (with lots of space) and ROKU (HULU, AMAZON VOD, NETFLIX) and my Plex Media server (for media on my network)- I rarely watch realtime tv.
yeah for technology and time shifting!
I also love the buyanditshereintwodays shipping. rarely do i need something so quickly that I cant wait two days... and several times its been delivered the next day.
BTW I do support my local grocery/deli/meat market and local hardware store. Fast delivery is great but not for everything.
As for the KINDLE library - I didnt realize you could rent a book. I hope it works for us Android users (Nexus 7). will check it out.
prime is totally worth it! I can have a mattress delivered in 2 days.... more than worth $79 and then everything else is all free shipping! Love the instant video, combined with my roku it's how I rent all my movies. More than worth it!
about the price comparisons: i've had prime since it started and i can click on the "more buying options" link up by the product pic and all the vendor choices can be listed in order of total cost, i. e. price+shipping. is that not showing up for others? you can filter it to show only new or used with that sorting order, or all, or prime only. seems like that would take care of time spent clicking around to check prices.
@griffin: we also joined the mom program (which is poorly named, you don't have to be a mom, you can be a dad or a childless person who just likes buying wet wipes or whatever) and subscribe to diapers and some groceries. these things often come in their manufacturers box only, with a shipping label slapped on. no extra plastic wrap or cardboard, ymmv. my husband also chooses "hassle free packing" every chance he gets and that's also how those purchases arrive. just don't buy a gift for your wife that way or she will totally know about the new whizbang rice cooker when it arrives.
I totally think Prime is worth it. I have one child in college and one in high school and that alone makes the value perfect. I always click Prime on the left sidebar so I only see Prime products. It is perfect for birthdays and Christmas. I just never worry about shipping.
You are right about the instant videos, they suck.
Sorry I didn't see this till now. Yes they now offer a 7.99 / Month option. If you don't see it available you can email them and they will send you a link to sign up for it.