Amazon has passed the 100-million-mark in terms of Prime membership 13 years after the program’s launch, a figure that has been guessed at but never publicly disclosed, CEO Jeff Bezos said in the company’s annual shareholder letter.
The number of U.S. Prime members was pegged at 85 million in 2017 by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, representing 63% of Amazon’s domestic customers. Last July, CIRP estimated that the average Prime member spends $1,300 annually with Amazon, compared with $700 for non-members.
Bezos said in the shareholder letter that 5 billion items were shipped worldwide to Prime members in 2017, with more people joining in 2017 than in any previous year. He added U.S. Prime members are eligible for free two-day shipping on 100 million items.
In 2017, Prime expanded to Mexico, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and Business Prime Shipping was introduced in the U.S. and Germany.
“We keep making Prime shipping faster as well, with Prime Free Same-Day and Prime Free One-Day delivery now in more than 8,000 cities and towns,” Bezos said. “Prime Now is available in more than 50 cities worldwide across nine countries.”
On Amazon’s marketplace, more than half of the units sold in 2017 were from third-party sellers for the first time.
“Over 300,000 U.S.-based SMBs started selling on Amazon in 2017, and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) shipped billions of items for SMBs worldwide,” Bezos said. “Customers ordered more than 40 million items from SMBs worldwide during Prime Day 2017, growing their sales by more than 60% over Prime Day 2016.”
Bezos added Amazon’s Global Selling program, which enables SMBs to sell products cross-border, grew by more than 50% in 2017, with cross-border ecommerce representing more than 25% of third-party sales.
As for Whole Foods, Amazon rolled out free two-hour delivery on orders over $35 for Prime members in select cities in February, with other cities added in March and April and more coming. The company also allows Prime members to get 5% cash back on Whole Foods orders when using Amazon’s Visa rewards card.
Earlier this week Amazon announced it was adding an international shopping feature on its mobile app, making it easier for shoppers in other countries to buy products from U.S. sellers, and vice versa.