If you use YouTube to watch videos, you would know that almost all YouTubers would ask you to subscribe and click the bell icon to get notified when they upload new videos.
Similar to that, Amazon being the biggest online retailer in the world offers a subscription service that allows you to have unlimited access to their digital platform services and exclusive deals on products you buy from their site.
There are also other online platforms that provide such services. In this article, we are going to focus only on Amazon Prime. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of the benefits offered by Amazon Prime subscription, so in this article, let us see a breakdown of the features offered by Amazon Prime in detail.
Benefits of Using Amazon Prime
Let us try to understand the benefits offered by Amazon Prime, to make an informed decision about subscribing to its membership.
Fast and Free Shipping
Amazon Prime users can get free shipping for the products they purchase on Amazon. The shipping speed is also faster in Amazon compared to many other online e-commerce platforms, in fact most of the orders (more than 10 million items) are shipped within two days or one day in Amazon.
The delivery time varies depending on the place of delivery. There are also certain places where Amazon is giving same-day delivery.
Amazon also has an option called “Free release-date delivery”, where you can pre-order an item before the release date and get it on the day it gets released.
The “Ultrafast Grocery” delivery option delivers fresh meat and other grocery items within two hours of ordering. If you want standard shipping, you can also choose the “no-rush” delivery option which will earn you rewards for future purchases.
Prime Video
Wanna watch your favorite show or movie? if yes, then most probably you would require Amazon Prime. Prime Video is one of the major features offered by Amazon with its Prime subscription.
There are thousands of movies and tv shows in the prime video, which you can access with a Prime subscription. There are many popular shows in prime video like Manifest, The Walking Dead, the flash, Inside Edge, Goliath, and many more.
With a single prime subscription, you can get access to all these shows.
Prime Gaming
In recent times, Amazon is constantly expanding its gaming network. Amazon even acquired the popular live game streaming company Twitch Interactive for US$970 million.
If you are a gamer then this feature provided by Amazon Prime would be a great deal for you. Through your membership, you can get access to thousands of games and in-app content.
You can also get a free Twitch TV channel subscription every month for all your devices.
Amazon Online Shopping
More than other digital services, you have a lot of benefits in Amazon online shopping if you are a prime member.
Amazon releases lightning deals for thousands of products. Being an Amazon Prime member, you can get 30 minutes early access to those deals.
Prime Day shopping is a celebration of Amazon’s anniversary every year. This deal was started in 2015, it was a huge hit among online shoppers. In 2018, Amazon decided to extend the time for prime day shopping to 36 hours.
During Prime Day shopping, as a prime customer, you can get access to a lot of exclusive discounted deals on thousands of products.
There is also a personal shopper feature, which allows you to try clothes, jewels, accessories and pay for it only if you desire to keep the purchase. You will not be charged for trying these products.
Prime Reading
As you probably know Amazon’s first products were books, still, they are the leading player in online bookselling.
Amazon Prime Reading allows you to borrow and read unlimited books, magazines, and other reading materials on their catalog. You can read it on apps like kindle, and Fire Tablet on your Apple and Android devices.
They also have a feature for their prime customers called “Amazon first reads”, where you can download new books every month and also pay a lesser price for buying hard-bound books.
Prime Music
Just like Spotify and other music streaming apps, you can listen to music albums from all over the world through your prime membership.
As a prime member, you can get access to over 75 million songs and podcasts on Amazon Music Prime. It’s all completely ad-free, and you can listen to your favorite music in offline mode by downloading the music in your device.
Amazon Photos
Amazon Prime members get unlimited storage space to store photos at high resolution. There is also a separate 5 GB storage to store videos. As a prime member, you can securely back up your photos and videos.
Fees for Amazon Prime Membership Subscription
Due to the popularity of Prime, Amazon has decided to increase the membership price for Amazon Prime. Previously, the membership price for Amazon Prime per month was 12.99 $, now it is 14.99 $ per month.
For the yearly package, the previous fee was 119 $, now it has been increased to 139 $. This will be in effect from February 18, 2022, onwards for new users.
If you are already a member, from March 25, 2022, onwards you will be paying the new revised fees.
Amazon for Students
As far as students are concerned, Amazon Prime has given some benefits. On providing a valid school mail id, you will be given six months free trial on Amazon Prime Student, where you can get free shipping for the purchases you make.
Apart from that, all the other services are limited. But, once you pay the discounted annual membership fees, you will have the same advantages as the Prime users.
Is Amazon Prime the best option?
Amazon isn’t the only online retailer that gives premium membership options. Walmart has also started the WalmartPlus option to provide free delivery on products you purchase from Walmart and gives a discount on fuelling your vehicles at their gas stations.
As far as Netflix and Hulu are concerned, Amazon Prime Video is comparatively less expensive. But the options are less compared to the videos streamed on Netflix and Hulu.
To conclude, Amazon Prime seems to be a better option in many ways, especially with their shopping deals. Considering the fact that, most of us, buy things online these days, it is better to have a prime membership subscription to get benefit from all the above-mentioned features.
But, not everyone may like their services. So, before subscribing to full-time membership access, you can also make use of the 30-days free trial provided by Amazon. If you are not happy with prime features, you cancel the membership during or before the trial expiry date.