Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner and it’s getting a lot of buzz what’s really grabbing people’s attention is the slogan Amazon is putting on all it’s ads for the event.
“More Deals Than Black Friday”
Considering how crazy Black Friday is for Amazon, that’s a pretty bold statement that has some questioning if this is gonna be the new “Black Friday” for Amazon. I think it just might be. To be honest, there’s really no downsides to this event for Amazon in general if they keep their best sales for their Prime members who are already paying them for premium service instead of putting all the best deals out there for the general public on Black Friday facing serious competition with retailers across the nation every year.
They’re attempting to boost their Prime memberships by offering more exclusive content for members only but I’m not exactly sure this will work out the way they think because of the statement you can find by scrolling down the Prime Day event page which states:
“Not a Prime member? Try Prime today and get immediate access to deals on July 15.”
This simple offer is what makes this whole thing a gamble for Amazon. They’re banking that a swarm of people sign up for the membership and then STAY AFTERWARDS. I put that in bold because that’s a huge bet that they’re most certainly gonna lose with most of the new Prime members that day. The price for a Prime membership is $99/yr and the biggest attraction to it is free shipping on most of your Amazon purchases. Nevermind the daily “lightning” deals, streaming service, photo service, and Kindle Lending book service (does anyone actually use that?) which also comes with every membership. However, when I talk to someone about Prime membership the only thing they talk about is the money they save on shipping or how it doesn’t make sense cause they don’t shop on Amazon enough to benefit from the free shipping (like I would say not too long ago).
They’re banking that a swarm of people sign up for the membership and then STAY AFTERWARDS.
My point is if you take away the free shipping along with the annual Prime Day (if they decide to make this annual), what attraction is there to paying Amazon $99/yr? I for one, can see the huge savings in Amazon Prime since most services that compete with it are about $10/mo which means you will literally pay more than double to get those same benefits from a few separate companies. Also, those services offer monthly payments which are more inviting to customers since they don’t see how much they’re spending a year. I know it sounds stupid but you don’t see Netflix or Spotify advertising $120/yr memberships do you? Of course not, cause then they wouldn’t look so affordable to many but in actuality that’s exactly how much those services cost.
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- Hulu ~96/yr
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- Spotify ~$120/yr
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- Netflix starting from ~96/yr
It’s not all good though. You have to buy an Amazon Fire TV to truly have Prime Instant Video in your living room or anywhere else besides your PC and your phone. Prime Music doesn’t have as great a selection of music as other services. Kindle Lending is exclusive for the few people that actually have one. Yes, I know people buy them but compared to the amount of people that prefer their Ipads and Android Tablets, the Kindle is not exactly a hot seller.
Amazon knows they’re fighting an uphill battle with companies that have been in the streaming business for longer than them and have more to offer and I think Prime Day no matter the gamble it surely is, is a step in the right direction to make their Prime membership more appealing since it’s certainly more affordable. It’s not a replacement for Black Friday however. Amazon is still gonna do Black Friday as usual without a doubt but I think they’re gonna save their truly good deals for Prime Day upon which many will sign up for the free trial and quickly cancel afterwards.
