Amazon Prime Grows to 50 Million Members

Amazon’s Prime membership is up 23% from a year ago, according to new data from Cowen & Co.

By

Alex Eule

Nov. 21, 2016 1:15 p.m. ET

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

The ranks of Amazon Prime members continues to grow. The e-commerce giant now has 49.5 million Prime members in the United States, according to new third-party data from Cowen & Co.

Amazon.com doesn’t disclose its Prime membership count, so Cowen bases its estimate off a panel of 2,500 U.S. consumers. Some 45% of that panel now has Prime, which translates to 49.5 million total consumers, Cowen estimates, up 23% from a year ago, when the firm estimated 40 million Prime subscriptions.

Prime costs $99 a year. It gives Amazon shoppers free two-day shipping, plus free access to the company’s growing library of streaming TV and music.

Some other data from Cowen’s new report:

• 83% of Prime members purchased an item from Amazon in October versus 49% of U.S. consumers that don’t have Prime.
• The number of people making “Grocery and consumable” purchases at Amazon are up 12% from last year, Cowen estimates. Meanwhile, those making the same kind of purchases fell 2% at Wal-Mart and rose just 1% atTarget.

The swelling Prime base is good news for Amazon and its stock, especially as consumers gear up for holiday shopping.

Big Picture: Amazon Prime members tend to make more purchases from Amazon, so the latest growth of Prime is a good sign for Amazon’s holiday sales.