Amazon has been selling Prime subscriptions for years, but Amazon has to, like, do stuff for you when you're a Prime member. Wouldn't it be nice if Amazon could sell subscriptions for other companies and get a piece of the action? Well, that's the new "Subscribe with Amazon" in a nutshell. It's a marketplace where Dropbox, The New Yorker, Sling TV, and many other entities are now selling monthly subscriptions.You can browse the subscription store just like you would any other section of Amazon. The message is clear throughout—this is a place to find new services, get deals, and manage it all via Amazon. For instance, the magazine service Texture is available for 50% off right now. Although, many of the subscriptions I'd care about appear to be undiscounted. If that's the case for you, Subscribe with Amazon might still have some value as a way to centralize your account management.All you need to do in order to list something in the Amazon subscription store is have an app, service, or website that offers paid tiers. Well, you also have to be in the US... sorry. You have full control over the pricing and can offer introductory discounts and free trials. Amazon takes a 30% cut of the subscription for the first year, but that drops to 15% if someone renews. Interested parties can sign up on Amazon's new subscription portal.
PRESS RELEASE
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced a self-service subscriptions marketplace that allows digital subscription providers to reach millions of Amazon customers. Subscribe with Amazon is a new way for subscription businesses to sell on Amazon, offering them targeted customer exposure through popular discovery features such as search and recommendations while also providing customers with a simple way to purchase and manage their subscriptions. Selling on Subscribe with Amazon is easy with self-service enrollment. The program allows subscription providers the ability to offer customers flexible pricing including introductory, monthly, and annual pricing options, as well as the opportunity to explore offering Prime exclusive deals. Digital subscriptions currently available span a variety of areas including streaming content, news/magazines, learning, and lifestyle. To learn more about how to become a subscription provider on Subscribe with Amazon, visit: www.subscribewithamazon.com.
“Over the years, Amazon has gained extensive experience in the memberships and subscriptions space, innovating across programs like Prime and Kindle Unlimited,” said Lovina McMurchy, general manager of Subscribe with Amazon. “Today, we’re excited to extend our selection by offering subscription businesses a self-service way to make their subscriptions available to millions of Amazon customers.”
Through its self-service tools, each subscription will have its own detail page, and providers can easily manage pricing and take advantage of easy-to-use APIs to receive orders and updates from Amazon. Subscribe with Amazon also offers the ability to propose Prime member exclusive discounts. For example, Prime members can get a 50% discount on the first six months of a subscription to Texture, a digital service that gives customers access to some of the world’s best magazines. Additionally, when customers purchase their subscription on Amazon.com, they can access it on any iOS, Android or Amazon Fire device supported by the subscription provider.
“Selling on Subscribe with Amazon gave us a whole new channel to reach new customers,” said Julie Roehm, Creativebug Co-Founder. “The integration process for joining the marketplace was easy. The step-by-step integration guide gave us a checklist of everything we needed to do, and the sample seller account let us see what to expect before we even started.”
Subscription providers of all sizes are selling on the marketplace, including SlingTV, Disney Story Central, Dropbox, Texture, eMeals, Fitstar by Fitbit, Creativebug, Headspace, LegalZoom, MileIQ, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker, Consumer Reports and Tawkify, to name a few. To explore the Amazon subscriptions storefront, please visit amazon.com/subscribe.
