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Amazon is on a mission to encourage teen shoppers into its retail ecosystem.
The online shopping mega-hub offers a number of deals and features catered to young users, from special deals on textbooks to trial periods that appeal to their "try before you buy" mentality."
It benefits Amazon to turn young people into Prime subscribers because once people sign up for Prime, they are likely to stay members. In fact, 95% of Prime members surveyed in a 2017 report said they were likely to renew their memberships.
Trial subscriptions give thrifty young users the opportunity to see what Amazon has to offer before making the full commitment
There's no better way to grab a teen shopper's attention than the words free and trial. As a notably financially-cautious generation, Gen Z-ers love to try before they buy. Amazon offers trial subscriptions to Prime Student at no cost for the first six months. Afterward, the price goes up to $6.49 per month with no cancellation restrictions.
The trial comes with all the benefits of Prime Student for free, including free two-day shipping, early access to deals and e-books, and unlimited music streaming, movies, TV shows, reading, and photo storage.
Amazon provides cheap renting options to college students who don't want to drop hundreds of dollars on textbooks
Instead of buying textbooks for classes and dropping hundreds of dollars in the process, students using Amazon Prime can now rent textbooks. Once they're all done with them, students can send the rentals back at no cost to them.
The process is simple. Search for your textbook based on the author, title, or ISBN. Next, select rent or buy, and new or used. Once the purchase is completed, the rental should arrive within the free two-day shipping period. Shoppers have 30 days to return it for any reason and they will receive a refund.
Amazon Teen allows teenagers to shop and browse without their shopping histories being monitored
Instead of always asking their parents and guardians for money, many teenagers would say that they like to be independent and have a certain amount of freedom, especially when it comes to shopping online.
Enter Amazon Teen, a program that allows teens to make purchases and parents to review and approve their orders. After teens place orders on their Amazon Teen accounts, parents can reply "Y" or "N" via text to approve or deny, and they can even set spending limits.
"The experience is meant to allow teens some control of their shopping experience, while allowing parents the final right of refusal on purchases," Joe Scartz, Velocity Commerce Group chief digital commerce officer, told Business Insider.
Prime Student helps incoming college students save money
Prime Student is a great tool for anyone with an .edu email — like a teenager starting their freshman year of college — to get a great deal on an Amazon Prime membership. Its curated lists include everything from discounts on must-have back-to-school items, deals on Echo devices and video games, and savings on the latest fashion trends.
Students also get free samples of products, unlimited access to Prime Reading, a music catalog spanning more than 50 million songs, and access to a monthly subscription to Twitch, Amazon's video-game streaming service.
Free and fast delivery appeals to the instant gratification associated closely with the digital native teens of today
Having grown up in a world of instant communication, today's teens are less patient than other generations when it comes to delivery speeds.
Amazon reels shoppers in with fast and easy delivery methods that are especially appealing to young people.
"The promise of Prime's next-day delivery is it too good for teens to resist, and once they have gone Prime, they can never go back to two- or three-day deliveries," Brett Downes, an Amazon SEO consultant, told Business Insider.
Teens get what they need faster with Prime options like two-day, one-day, same-day, and two-hour delivery. Downes called free and fast delivery "the ultimate sales tool for Amazon Prime."
Membership sharing allows entire families to share accumulated benefits
If a parent or guardian has Amazon rewards, their teenagers will be able to use them on their own purchases. Amazon allows family members to share their Prime benefits with other family members with Amazon Household.
Household allows up to four teens to create their own shipping and video streaming profiles. Teens are able to shop freely, adding items to wish lists and even place orders, which have to be approved by the account owner, like the parent.
Twitch allows Prime members to have access to videos of their favorite gamers
Twitch, a live video-game streaming service, is well known to gamers, both teen and adult alike. Amazon bought Twitch back in 2014, and continues to use it as a draw for young users.
Prime members are able to link Twitch to their Prime account, which allows them access to free games and in-game loot. The family account shared with teens allows them to play free games and get rewards for games like Fortnite and Apex Legends.
"This created an effective circle to not only get parents to continue to shop on Amazon but encourage teens to use the service in other ways than just shopping on Amazon," Drew Kalinski, founder of the Amazon tutorial service Amztut, told Business Insider.
For Instagram-loving users, Amazon photo storage can make sure you never run out of phone space
Teen photo enthusiasts can get creative with free access to Amazon photo storage.
"Photos take up a lot of space on mobile phones," Brian Sheehan, sales manager at the logistics company Hollingsworth, told Business Insider. "By storing them on Amazon's cloud, they can essentially retain customer loyalty by making members reliant on their cloud services."
