Amazon.com Inc. is raising the annual fee for its Prime service from $99 to $119.
The new price, which will ultimately affect all of the more than 100 million Prime subscribers who receive free shipping on Amazon orders and other perks, will take effect May 11 for new customers and about a month later for everyone else. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky announced the change on the company’s earnings call for the quarter that ended on March 31.
“We always evaluate the price of Prime in all the countries we’re in, and we’re looking for creative ways to reach the customer,” Olsavsky said. “It’s really nothing more than looking at the state of the program, the high benefits it’s delivering.”
The Seattle-based firm posted sales of $51 billion in the period, an increase of 43 percent from a year earlier. Net income more than doubled to $1.63 billion, or $3.36 a share.
Amazon deliveries have become a sore point for President Trump, who complains that the Postal Service charges the e-commerce giant too little for the service and has slammed news coverage by the Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.
Trump recently signed an executive order creating a task force led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to evaluate the postal service’s finances.
