Amazon Prime is becoming ever more important and they’re starting to punt it at customers harder than ever.
In the past you’ve always been able to subscribe to Prime via messaging on their home page and every single time you make a purchase. In fact it’s not enough for Amazon to offer a Prime trial whenever you make a purchase, now they do their best to tempt you into signing up at multiple touch points throughout the checkout process. Amazon are pushing so hard that there have been complaints from people who didn’t realise that they’re signing up for a £79/year subscription.
Personally I’ve resisted the temptation to sign up for Prime. I’ve no interest in their add ons such as Amazon Prime Film, I’m not a Kindle users so don’t want their books or apps, and more importantly the type of products I buy on Amazon aren’t ever things I need next day – I’m quite happy to make full use of Amazon’s SuperSaver delivery for free.
Amazon appear to have realised that I’m not going to get clicky with their sign up boxes on their website, so now Amazon Director Russell Morris has personally written to me (well he signed the mass mailer) saying “I’m sending you this letter because I want you to know that you’re eligible for a free trial of Amazon Prime”.
To make me feel extra special, the letter came with a credit card style “30-Day Free Trial to Amazon Prime” attached. To make me feel under even more pressure to sign up the 30-Day free trial offer expires on the 22nd of May 2015, although I’m pretty sure Amazon will still be delighted for me to sign up at any time in the future.
I’m probably not the typical Amazon customer, for those that are Amazon Prime is probably a great deal and once they have it they want to make the most of it. That’s why as an Amazon seller you should be considering using Amazon FBA more seriously perhaps than in the past. It’s only by placing your products within Amazon’s warehouses that they can then offer them with free next day shipping to their Prime customers.
All things being equal if you’re self-fulfilling and your competitor is using FBA, they’ll probably win the Buy Box and get the sales.
