Amazon Prime now offers over 15 million
items that are eligible for the service, Prime Instant Video, which is free to
members offering over 22,000 films and tv programmes on demand and adding the
Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which has now grown
from some 5,000 books to over 180,000 that can be borrowed for free with no due
dates. Prime remains just $79.
Amazon now has announce that it ships
more items with Prime Free Two-Day Shipping than with Free Super Saver Shipping and they have built a club and
member loyalty which will become increasingly self fuelling. Amazon Prime is a
marketing work of genius that its competitors will struggle to compete with.
They may offer free shipping but in doing so stand to the total cost, they may
offer free on demand film downloads but only have a film service and not a
media service. They may only offer digital and have a limited range compared to
Amazon’s. more and – the program Amazon launched in 2002 that offers free
shipping on orders over $25.
Amazon is building a significant ‘club’
and differentiator which not only is hard for others to follow but potentially
protects Amazon from sudden attack by building a ‘first choice’ or preferred port
for its customers. Importantly they can now build new services which can be offered
to Prime members and the Kindle lending is a clear example of this. Effectively
what started out as a postal offer has morphed into a subscription club, on
line library for film and ebooks and could be easily plugged into other
services.
As others improve their offer Amazon
may well loose some share in individual markets but they are growing a bigger
market share across several markets. This in turn will become more appealing to
many and offer value and a one stop shop.
Amazon has displayed and continues to deliver first
class value and customer service and it is these qualities that others such as
Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Apple must grapple with
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