Report: More Than Half Of America Could Have Amazon Prime Membership By End Of Year

Amazon is winning.

Or, at least, that certainly appears to be the case when it comes to its exclusive Amazon Prime membership club.

A new report released by Cowen and Company this week estimates that Amazon’s 49 million Prime members are worth an estimated $143 billion to the eCommerce giant over their lifetime.

And the pace of Amazon Prime membership also appears to be tracking up — way up.

Amazon Prime is on pace to add 12 million subscribers in 2016, according to the company’s research. That’s up from the 10 million members that joined in 2015, which was up from the 7 million members that joined Prime in 2014.

John Blackledge, an analyst for Cowen and Company, told CNBC recently that he believes that about 44 percent of all U.S. households are Amazon Prime members but that he expects that number to rise to about 50 percent penetration among U.S. households by the end of the year, which would be roughly 60 million U.S. households that had a Prime membership.

Prime has “maintained healthy growth” largely due to its increasing value proposition, Blackledge told CNBC.

Amazon has refused to disclose how many Prime members it has.

Shortly before its second annual Prime day in July, a report estimated that Amazon had added 19 million new Prime members and put the number of Prime members at 63 million, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

“Amazon promoted the service aggressively starting with the first Prime Day in July 2015 and continuing with exclusive product offers and enhanced services throughout the year,” Josh Lowitz, partner and cofounder of CIRP, told CNBC.

Amazon has also taken steps recently to make it more enticing to become a Prime member by raising the minimum price for free shipping for non-Prime members to $49 (up from $35), while offering a Prime subscription for $10.99 per month for the year for those consumers who might balk at paying the full $99 price all at once.

“Over time, we think Amazon Prime can continue to drive penetration of U.S. households,” according to Blackledge.

And Amazon Prime members appear to be some of the eCommerce giant’s most loyal costumers as well. CIRP estimates that Amazon Prime members spend about $1,200 a year on Amazon, compared to non-members who spend about $500.

But Cowen and Company puts those figures even higher, estimating that Prime members buy from Amazon at least three times per month (compared to twice monthly for non-members) and generate 80 percent more profit for the company than non-members.

Cowen and Company estimates that Amazon Prime members spend about $193 a month on the site and have a lifetime value of about $3,000 per member to Amazon. CIRP said that 91 percent of Amazon Prime members renewed their service for a second year.

In July, for its second annual Prime Day, Amazon said it was the largest sales day the company had ever seen and planned to do it again next year.

“After yesterday’s results, we’ll definitely be doing this again,” Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime, said in a statement trumpeting Amazon’s success.

Soon, it appears as though the world might be divided into Amazon Prime members and non-Amazon Prime members.