UK now has 15m Amazon Prime members

Amazon is the retail phenomenon which started in a garage and now, nearly a quarter of a century later, new research from Mintel reveals that almost nine in ten (86%) Brits are Amazon shoppers. More importantly, four out of ten Brits are now Amazon Prime members.

39% of consumers have access to Amazon Prime, with 26% personally being Amazon Prime members and a further 13% sharing access through someone else’s account. Scaled to a national level, this places Amazon Prime membership in the UK at around the 15 million mark.

The nation’s younger consumers are the biggest fans of Prime, as a staggering 63% of 16-24s and 52% of 25-34s have access to this premium service. Mintel research goes on to reveal that Prime membership has a major impact on purchasing, with members significantly more likely to purchase across all product ranges.

The main draw, or at least the most used perk of Prime, remains the speedy delivery offered at no extra cost to members; some two thirds (66%) of those with access to Prime say this is a service they regularly use. By contrast, the biggest barrier to Amazon’s recruitment of more members appears to be price, some 44% of those who have never been members put this down to the scheme being too expensive.

“While most consumers already shop with Amazon, the retailer continues to gain market share by increasing the number of Prime members. That’s because Prime members buy significantly more, and across a broader number of categories, than non-members. This is why Amazon continues to add to the list of Prime-exclusive services, with Premier League matches coming in the second half of this year. Regardless of the reasons people join Prime – there is a net benefit for the retail side of the business.”
– Nick Carroll, Associate Director of Retail, Mintel

How to target Amazon Prime members

Amazon FBA

In the past, the only way to target Amazon Prime members was to place your stock into FBA and pay Amazon to pick, pack and fulfil orders – stock stored in FBA qualifies for the Prime one-day delivery service to Amazon’s customers. If you self fulfilled orders, even if you offered the same one-day delivery service your items wouldn’t be flagged as Amazon Prime.

Amazon Seller fulfilled Prime

This was discussed at length at this week’s Tamebay Round Table with delivery experts GFS. Retailers at the event were either already qualified or about to launch Seller Fulfilled Prime. Seller Fulfilled Prime allows you to deliver Prime products directly from your own warehouse. By displaying the Prime badge, you are committing to fulfil orders with One-Day Delivery at no additional charge for Prime customers

When you apply, you’ll need to complete a Seller Fulfilled Prime trial period. If the trial goes successfully then your enrolled products will be shown with a Prime badge, increasing their visibility to the most loyal Amazon customers. It should be noted that you will need to ship your Seller Fulfilled Prime products via an Amazon-approved carrier.

One the biggest benefits of Seller Fulfilled Prime is that as well as exposure to the 15m UK Amazon Prime Members, you keep control of you stock and you can get your entire portfolio of products into the Prime program. Some products may be too expensive, bulky, seasonal or slow selling making them unsuitable for Amazon FBA charges but can now qualify for Prime while being self fulfilled.

With 15 million Amazon Prime members, and a disproportionately high number of younger users, if your products don’t display the Prime badge then they will be less likely to be purchased. FBA is no longer your only choice – Seller Fulfilled Prime is an option you should definitely consider.

You can register your interest to qualify for Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime here.