Amazon revamps Prime: Free shipping limited to same-household members only
With holiday shopping around the corner, Amazon is making changes to its free shipping policies.
Beginning October 1, Amazon ended their invitee program that allowed Prime members to extend free shipping to people living outside of their household.
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Instead, Amazon is encouraging people to sign up for their own memberships. They are offering discounted memberships of 15 dollars for the first year, then the standard fee of 139 dollars per year after that.
Amazon is replacing their invitee program with Amazon Family. This will allow Prime account holders to share benefits with people living at the same address as them.
Amazon’s website said they believe this will increase Prime subscriptions, a move that mirrors streaming platforms HBO Max and Netflix.
The bottom line is, Prime account holders can ship free to others, but no one else can use their account to make purchases.
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