Displaying items by tag: prime

(Seattle)

It is no secret that President Trump is not a fan of Amazon. From his campaign right through until the present he has constantly threatened the company. Now he might have some fuel added to his fire. Amazon is currently putting tons of investment into expanding its logistics business, which will ultimately pose a threat to the United States Postal Service. Trump has already said that Amazon abuses USPS, and this will only embolden him. Trump wants USPS to double the rates it charges Amazon.

FINSUM: USPS lost almost $3 bn last year and hasn’t turned a profit in a decade. It does seem like Amazon is getting an unfair subsidy, but then again, it is up to USPS to set its rates.

(San Francisco)

In what could be a major development for super power Apple, it was reported yesterday that the company was inching towards “Apple Prime”, or some sort of bundled service model similar to Amazon Prime. The company may combine news, magazine articles, and television into a single bundle. Some analysts say Apple needs to increase its service-based revenue, such as that built on monthly subscription fees, in order to continue to expand.

FINSUM: If Apple wants to keep growing at 5%, it needs to add the equivalent of a Fortune 200 company every year. That is a huge revenue goal, and this could be a way to do it.

(Seattle)

How Amazon plans to use Whole Foods as part of its broader strategy is becoming clearer today. The company has announced that it will begin to offer significant discounts on hundreds of products, in addition to special offers, for Amazon Prime members who shop at Whole Foods. The company already has great Prime penetration of Whole Foods shoppers (75%), but less than 20% of Amazon Prime members shop at Whole Foods. The perks are a way to lure more Prime members into Whole Foods. The company seems likely to use the increased sales to offset any cost rises to its Prime service.

FINSUM: This seems like a good idea as the move will feed both its Prime business and Whole Foods.

(Seattle)

Anyone in Amazon should be a little bit nervous today. While the stock’s performance should speak for itself, we think an announcement by the company could be a risk factor. Amazon has announced that it is increasing the price of its Prime service from $99 to $119, or a 20% rise. The company has not raised the price since 2014, but the changes will come into effect next month. Amazon notes that it has greatly expanded the services included in Prime, including bringing the total items covered by Prime to over 100m.

FINSUM: How much might this keep new subscribers from joining? Going over the $100 mark seems like an important mental threshold. The price hike appears to indicate Amazon needs more revenue to invest in another big venture.

(Seattle)

Amazon is starting a new service. For the last year, the company has been trying to convince consumers that letting the company’s delivery people in their homes via a special service was a good idea. Now Amazon is taking that one step further with the launch of a program to deliver packages to customers’ cars. Like the home deliveries, and broadly under the same program, named Amazon Key, Amazon’s delivery people will deliver packages to cars parked in publicly available areas. The car will be unlocked by an OnStar (or similar) service and relocked after the delivery is completed.

FINSUM: We think this could be a very convenient feature for many people and may be an enticement to get more consumers to sign up.