Amazon recently announced that it wants to offer a discounted Prime membership tier for low-income US residents that are receiving government assistance. The company hopes to tap into a market which finds Prime membership costs too prohibitive.
The discount will knock a massive 45% off of the total cost of Prime, bringing the price down from $11 to $6 per month. Over the course of the year, this will save customers $60. Amazon Prime offers customers several perks including free two-day shipping on millions of items and access to a selection of online films and TV shows at no extra charge.
This is just one of several moves that Amazon has taken to encourage the poorer members of society to get onto its platform. The first step was to allow customers to pay on a monthly basis instead of paying out one large payment on a yearly basis; an R.W. Baird study found that this move saw Prime membership growth become the strongest in households making less than $50,000 per annum.
Amazon also made an announcement earlier this year where it said it would start accepting food stamps for its grocery items with the change due to begin in the summer period. The grocery service costs an additional fee on top of Prime membership.
