Key Takeaways
- Amazon is ending a program called Prime Invitee that allowed Prime members to share their free shipping benefit with someone outside their home.
- The program will be replaced with Amazon Family, with Prime shipping only able to be shared between a few accounts with the same primary residence.
- Amazon joins Netflix and Costco, among others, that have made efforts in recent years to encourage people to sign up for their own subscriptions instead of sharing benefits.
Amazon is joining the wave of companies pushing consumers to get their own subscriptions and not share benefits, as the online retail giant recently announced that one Amazon Prime perk is ending on Oct. 1. The Prime Invitee program will be replaced by Amazon Family.
This move comes as other companies including Netflix (NFLX) and Disney (DIS) have looked to crack down on several people sharing one account for their streaming services to help drive new subscriber growth, and Costco (COST) has introduced hurdles like scanning membership cards upon entering a store to prevent membership sharing.
What Benefits Do Prime Members Stand To Lose?
Amazon (AMZN) Prime Invitee is a benefit that allowed Prime members to share their free, two-day shipping that comes with the subscription with another Amazon account, whether they lived at the same place or not.
“The Invitee program, which enabled sharing of the Prime shipping benefit only, is being phased out, and Prime members can instead share a broad range of Prime benefits with Amazon Family,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Investopedia in September. “Amazon Family enables Prime members to share a range of benefits with one adult—whether that is a spouse, family member, or roommate—and Prime Video and additional digital content like Kindle eBooks, audiobooks, and games, with up to four children in their household.”
The spokesperson said the change of this program will not impact free shipping for orders that Prime members may ship to another address for reasons like sending a gift, or simply trying to avoid “porch pirates.”
One possible reason for the change is that Netflix and Costco’s membership sharing crackdown helped drive new subscriptions, and Reuters reported earlier in September week that Prime sign-ups were down year-over-year in the leadup to its longest ever four-day Prime Day sales event. Amazon reportedly added 5.4 million Prime members in the three weeks ahead of Prime Day, down about 2% from the same time last year, per Reuters.
How The Changes Could Affect You
Amazon will replace the program with Amazon Family, which will allow Prime members to share perks like free shipping and Prime Video content with the Amazon accounts of one other adult, and up to four children, provided they all have the same primary address.
Amazon is offering a discounted first year of Prime at $14.99 for the year for those who were previously invitees to encourage them to get their own Prime subscription once the program ends, according to CBS News.
That means that after Oct. 1, you’ll only be able to share your Prime shipping benefit with other people as long as they live with you, and if you’ve been an invitee using someone else’s free shipping, you only have a few days to decide whether your own Prime membership would be worth it.