The year 2019 will mark a milestone for the Amazon Prime membership program. This is the year that 51.3 percent of U.S. households will hold membership in the Amazon Prime program, according to the latest eMarketer forecast. This penetration level will mean Prime has about 5.2 million more households in its membership in 2019 than last year.
According to the eMarketer forecast, this sizable increase in membership will be driven by lower-income households and consumers attracted to the platform's new offerings. As it expands beyond the flagship Prime benefit of free shipping on Amazon orders, the Amazon Prime program has continued to diversify its value to customers, according to eMarketer.

“New membership is driven by the company’s continuous expansion of Prime product categories, like groceries, apparel and pantry, as well as new options for media consumption, like books and video games,” eMarketer vice president of forecasting Martín Utreras explained.

Prime subscribers also can utilize Prime’s Amazon Household, a service that can be viewed as logical for bigger families, as it offers Prime benefit sharing via linked accounts for up to two adults, four teens (ages 13 to 17) and four children (12 and younger), eMarketer noted in its forecast. The service also offers parental controls for media, as well as household-specific discounts on products like diapers and baby food.

Note than in May 2018, Amazon raised the annual Prime membership fee to $119 (only the second price increase in Prime's history), according to eMarketer. To soften the blow of a higher annual cost, Amazon introduced various payment plans and special discounts, including a $12.99/month option, an annual student membership fee of $59, and a $5.99/month fee for those on government assistance, according to eMarketer.

These offerings are attempts to capture and retain a wider range of consumers. "Amazon’s flexible discount strategy shows it's trying to attract the long tail of the consumer market,” Utreras added.

Amazon Prime users spend an average of $1,400 per year on Amazon vs. the $600 non-Prime members spend yearly, according to an October 2018 study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).