Amazon said US members of its Prime program saved an average of over $500 on delivery fees. In its announcement on Tuesday, Amazon said it also achieved record delivery speeds in 2024, with over 9 billion items arriving same- or next-day around the world.
Enabling the record speeds was the expansion of Same-Day Delivery sites that serve over 140 metropolitan areas in the US. Amazon also delivered 50% more items same- or next-day from its “everyday essentials” selection, which include health, beauty, baby, and pet categories.
To highlight how much the program expanded since Prime first launched in the US in 2005, Amazon said it now offers 20 times more selection that can be delivered twice as fast. Prime offered one million items shipped in two days, for free, in 2005. Today, Prime offers free delivery on more than 300 million items across 35 categories, tens of millions of which can be delivered the same or next day.
“Prime members responded to our faster delivery speeds, with members in the U.S. placing an average of nearly 100 orders last year—that’s nearly two orders every single week,” according to the company.
In 2005 when Prime launched, it cost $79 a year. Now it costs $139 a year. Amazon listed the benefits and offers it added to the program since then in Tuesday’s announcement, available on the AboutAmazon.com website.
Pure propaganda. The “savings” are a made up number. Because it now has such a huge logistics apparatus, Amazon could easily deliver most packages on the same timeline as Prime promises without anyone paying for a Prime membership. I see dozens of Amazon tractor trailers on my commute 30 miles up the interstate and back. And lots of Amazon delivery trucks in town. Instead, Amazon convinces everyone that they need to pay for Prime and collects the membership fee as gravy.