Should we stay with Prime?

If you are not familiar with Amazon Prime. it’s the company’s paid subscription service that offers members fast, free shipping, video streaming, and exclusive discounts. It offers cost-free two-day, one-day, or same-day delivery on millions of eligible items. No minimum order is required. 

Likewise, it also gives access to free delivery on qualifying orders from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods stores. In addition there’s free access to stream movies, TV shows, and live sports which we’ve never used much. There’s also a selection of music and podcasts which we’ve never accessed either. Cost for the service is $139 per year or $14.99 per month plus taxes. 

However, non-Prime members qualify for free standard shipping on orders of $35 or more on Amazon. Today, since I’m no friend with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, we’re reevaluating if Amazon Prime is worth it based on how often we shop and the fixed cost involved. After doing my own survey, it seems that if I place less than 20 or 30 orders per year, Prime is probably not worth it, especially if we often buy items that already have free shipping without Prime or batch many items together to get to $35. 

We might only go above these numbers yearly if we purchased lots of small, inexpensive items. We should also consider the following hidden factors people forget as Prime influences us to buy more frequently, buy smaller items, choose Amazon even when alternatives are cheaper and value convenience over price comparison 

Without Prime I need to meet the order minimum of over $35 of eligible items (those "fulfilled by Amazon") or any items marked "FREE Shipping" on the product page. If I want to reduce my Amazon addiction, canceling Prime is one of my strongest levers. Since my renewal is up soon, I’ll try this: Cancel and for the foreseeable future and keep track of the shipping fees actually paid, any inconvenience from waiting and any purchases I postpone to reach the free-shipping minimum. 

This way, I'll have real data instead of guessing. This way I shouldn’t have to renew, unless I’m ordering from Amazon very frequently or I know for sure that I’ll save more than $139 a year in shipping. People who place few orders find they can avoid most shipping charges by combining purchases or meeting Amazon's free-shipping minimum. I’ll let you know how that goes!