Amazon India ends discount on Prime membership fee

Ending its year-long discount on its Prime membership, Amazon India is set to start charging Rs 999 as yearly fees within the next few days.

"Prime membership is available for only a few more days at the special introductory price of Rs 499 a year.

In India, Prime members enjoy unlimited free one day and two-day delivery on over 11 million products online, free standard delivery without a minimum purchase, exclusive deals on bestselling products and instant access to latest movies and TV shows," the company said.

Amazon Prime was launched its services in India in a phased manner. When it started in 2016 the company offered faster delivery on 1.3 million products.

Later it brought it in entertainment content to India bundled in its membership.

The company according to market sources has around 12 million to 15 million members which it has gained over the last few months courtesy its entertainment content as well as its festive sale bonanza.

"Last Diwali we started offering exclusive deals for Prime members, which has continued through the year. In December 2016, we launched Prime Video as a benefit for Prime members- with unlimited ad-free streaming of movies and TV shows, at no additional cost," the company said.

The company said that Prime membership has grown over 2X since January 2017. "Amazon is the fastest growing marketplace in India and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile, according to Comscore and AppAnnie. Prime members shop more and contributed to over 50 percent of the total Amazon Pantry orders," it further said.

Mobile phones to electronics to entertainment to even sugar — Amazon India managed to sell everything in its first-ever Prime Day sale. Although India emerged as one of Amazon's biggest Prime Day markets during the 30-hour global sale, the e-commerce company refrained from any ranking.

In order to bump up its Prime membership, Amazon has been offering everything from groceries to entertainment.

According to Amazon India senior vice-president and country manager Amit Agarwal, there has been more than 200 per cent increase in the number of Prime members in India during January to June this year.

"In fact, in the run-up to the sales, we saw a phenomenal increase in member sign-up and it has increased beyond our wildest expectations. Not only in metros, we are also seeing the number of members rise in Tier-II and Tier-III cities," Agarwal said.

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