Amazon has a new deal with the National Football League and its nationwide chain of Whole Foods stores. For $130 million, Amazon and the NFL agreed to stream Thursday night football games online. While watching said game, you can also order some organic food from Whole Foods with your Amazon Fire TV without leaving your chair, as the company plans to deliver Whole Foods grocery orders directly to doorsteps.
Thirdly, while the company had almost doubled the expected first-quarter 2018 profits, and stock prices are at a record high, the online giant still feels a need to bump up Amazon Prime prices by $20 annually. The new increase goes into effect for new sign-ups on May 11. The raise for Prime membership renewals kicks in a little later, on June 16. It’s the first rise since 2014, when Prime membership increased from $79 to $99.
The news of the increase in its annual Prime membership fee comes a couple of months after Amazon bumped up the cost of its monthly fee for Prime, pushing it from $10.99 to $12.99. Amazon will be betting on most current members taking the hit, though the higher sum may well deter some people from signing up for the first time. Amazon isn’t hurting in the membership department though, as more than 100 million people globally are now signed up.
Here’s another little tid-bit of Amazon info: In 2017, Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items via Prime worldwide. More people signed up to the service than in any previous year, both worldwide and in the U.S, thanks to the launch of prime in the Netherlands, Singapore and Mexico. The raise in the Amazon Prime membership equates to about $2 billion to Amazon in additional revenue.
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