AP/Ted S. Warre
Amazon Prime flew to new heights this holiday.
- Amazon saw new Prime subscribers sign ups and sales both balloon this holiday season.
- This was likely due to the non-stop new benefits Amazon keeps rolling out.
- Convenience is one of the major reasons customers subscribe to Prime, and Amazon rolled out many attractive benefits to holiday shoppers.
Amazon's Prime holiday was optimum.
The company added millions of Prime subscribers during the holiday - four million in just a week, according to a company release. That makes a grand total of 88 million subscribers, according to an estimate by GBH Insights.
New and old subscribers spent 22% more than they spent last year, according to a survey done by GBH Insights. That's on top of the gulf that already exists between the spending Prime members do on Amazon and how much other customers spend. That makes Prime membership Amazon's "golden jewel" according to GBH, even as other analysts claim Prime membership growth has slowed in 2017.
Amazon took about 50% of all holiday sales online. That's up from 38% last year, GBH says, and it means the 18% online sales increase estimated this holiday is good news mostly just for one company.
Amazon's Prime members likely shopped more on the website due to its ever-increasing benefits. Conveniences like expanded one-day and same-day shipping, as well as two-hour Prime Now delivery, enticed members both new and old. Use of these services doubled this holiday, according to the company.
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