I just realised that there is a huge disparity between Amazon Prime membership pricing between Australia (AUD$59) and the USA (USD$139) - how long before it starts increasing here? Would you continue to subscribe if it went over $100 here?
Are the benefits the same? Seems kinda pointless only posting the price.
Amazon Prime USA get a lot more added features and there's offers for 50% off membership.
Market forces and population size/purchasing power differ too.
I use Amazon quite a lot for almost everything so would have no issues paying more for it beyond initial whinge.
What's the added features apart from fast shipping and prime video?
Amazon US and Amazon AU are totally incomparable, so there's no point comparing Prime costs.
I used to order from the US site all the time (free shipping for non-Prime) before moving back to Australia, and have been really amazed at how bad the AU site is- very limited selection, what is available tends to be generic crap from Chinese resellers with silly store names. And the prices for the generic crap is expensive, whereas the prices for the limited amount of 'properly branded' stuff seems to be on average about 50% higher.
It was a real eye opener that going down to KMart here was often a better option to using Amazon.
and have been really amazed at how bad the AU site is- very limited selection, what is available tends to be generic crap from Chinese resellers with silly store names
That is because Amazon is really just a marketplace these days that manages all the warehousing. We do lack some good 'sellers' for sure! Which is what you are seeing.
It was a real eye opener that going down to KMart here was often a better option to using Amazon.
or even ebay is far cheaper too. I'm often surprised that Amazon can deliver a box of cereal to my house for $3, but some 10c plastic item is $15! that I can get from kmart for $2 today, or ebay for $1 in a few weeks time.
US Prime includes a cloud upload service that is unlimited for photos (and doesn't alter quality either)
US Prime has 60% more prime video content free
US Prime covers far more items and services (like grocery deliveries)
US Prime has a lot more free music access
Not really comparable at all!
But are they features you WANT and would pay extra to have?
I wouldn't use the cloud photos or the music as I use other services, I rarely watch amazon prime, the UI is horrid.
Not sure what extra items and services you think they have that we don't here other than grocery delivery.
So for me, would I rather $60 for what we have, or $210 for what they have? Hmmmm not a hard choice.
I used to use the cloud for backups, was the only options for 2TB+ at one stage!
The degree of extra video and music content is also crazy!
And the whole family could be added to the account for cloud, video, audio, ebooks - which was also a bonus!
I pay Woolworths to get unlimited delivery, I'd happily shift to Amazon Fresh if it existed here. Unlimited cloud photos is incredibly valuable, because no one else offers anything quite like that anymore, everyone has data caps. The music is an easy substitute for any other service. They also have a bunch of free audiobooks and ebooks each month and I watch prime tv regularly (it's not a good UI, but it's functional and I mostly spend time watching shows, not browsing with the UI).
Easy choice for me, $210.
You want to pay $210 for it? Woolworths isn't that much is it?
@Sammy2000: Woolworths unlimited delivery is $120 a year. Worth it for me, I use it at least twice a month to get all my groceries (I'd rather the hours of my life to post comments on ozbargain rather than roaming a supermarket).
Spotify is what, $140 a year? And all you get over Amazon is the nicer app and algorithm, both are ad free and have pretty much the same songs.
Photobucket charge $140US for unlimited photo storage, Smugmug $120US (and they compress files).
Then there are the free audiobooks, ebooks, 5% cashback, try before you buy clothing thing (order stuff, try it on, send back what you don't like and only pay for what you want) and a few other bits and bobs. That's on top of what Australian prime offers (free, fast shipping, TV, free games). The whole point is to suck you into their ecosystem and it's mostly run off the backs of underpaid warehouse workers but it's still fantastic value.
@freefall101: They would be able to suck me into their ecosystem with all of that now you say that.
I buy things off Prime just due to the ease and speed of it all .
You can also invite family members in the US Amazon prime which is amazing and cuts down total sub cost.
But the US prime is nearly 4 times the price of the Aussie one, so you need to 'share' it around to make it worthwhile.
The US get more benefits than in Australia.
Amazon Prime membership pricing between Australia (AUD$59) and the USA (USD$139)
Would you continue to subscribe if it went over $100 here?
The USA pricing is basically $210 aussie buckaroos……. So well over $100!
I look at AMZ US and cry vs the selection here . I would pay double the membership of the US to get it .
Yes