When Amazon Prime first launched, some people questioned if Prime was a loyalty program
Now Amazon Prime is widely seen as one of the most successful loyalty programs of all time.
While you can’t copy Amazon Prime, there are lessons you can learn from it. Here are the four biggest ones.
1. Alleviate Your Customers’ Paint Points
Jeff Bezos has always talked about having a laser focus on your customers. And that means figuring out their pain points and addressing them.
So, what was that like for Amazon?
Amazon did not have any brick and mortar stores, so for their consumers, shipping cost and shipping thresholds were hurdles. Therefore, free shipping was important.
For your company, this may also be free shipping and honestly, we all expect free shipping now, but this could be something else entirely.
2. Add to Your Loyalty Program Over Time
Over time, Amazon added movies, music, photo storage, free books, and more to Prime.
You can’t add all the media options Amazon can and we’re not saying you need to open a movie studio, but you can add new benefits over time to keep your program current.
Retail is moving so fast and adding to your program over time can keep it current and makes member want to engage.
Plus, this prevents costly relaunches in the future.
3. Give Your Loyalty Program Members Instant Benefits
One of the things that makes Amazon Prime so unique is that it gives users an immediate benefit.
There is no need to rack up points over time after making transactions.
Unlike a traditional loyalty program that rewards slowly, Prime is all about now. It’s about 24/7 benefits that members can feel every time someone shops.
And with some of the other benefits like movies and music, customers are enjoying the value even outside of transactions.
Customers don’t want value eventually; they want it now.
Amazon Prime was made to show value on every purchase a customer makes on Amazon.
Modern loyalty programs need to take advantage of every loyalty moment.
4. Create a Loyalty Program so Valuable, Customers Want to Pay For It
Finally, Amazon charged their customers
Customers who pay for your loyalty program are committing to using the program. This is a bigger commitment than asking for their email in exchange for a coupon.
For the retailer, this also lets you fund better benefits.
We talk a lot about the importance of creating a program that is unique and premium loyalty programs make this possible.
Takeaways From Amazon Prime
So, to recap, Amazon Prime has done for things well:
- They addressed their customers biggest pain points.
- They added to the program over time.
- They focused on instant benefits.
- They made the program valuable enough to charge for.
So, while not every brand is Amazon, that’s okay. Every brand is unique, and every brand can use Amazon Prime as an example of how to do premium loyalty correctly.
Learn more about premium loyalty here.
Brian Carl
Brian is our VP of Marketing and leads the overall direction of our B2B Marketing and Marketing Operations Teams. When he’s not chasing his three kids around at home, he enjoys reading as much as he can about marketing, technology and leadership or playing video games when they finally all fall asleep.