Amazon to increase price of Prime membership due to increased delivery costs

The cost of membership to Amazon’s popular Prime service is going up, the retailer has said.

The 49.99 per year service offers unlimited free one day delivery on a significant proportion of the retailer’s stock, as well as free access to many of its Kindle digital book titles.

However, Amazon has now said that a price hike is likely at least in the US, where Prime membership currently costs $79. This is likely to rise to anything between $99 and $119.

Increased shipping and fuel costs have been blamed on the decision, which coupled with an increase in the amount of orders placed using the service has left it economically unsustainable – as demonstrated by the company’s recent underwhelming financials.

Amazon saw over 1m new Prime signups in the week before Christmas alone.

No timescale has been put on the price increase.