Amazon is using Prime Day to show membership is about more than free shipping — and it's a brilliant strategy (AMZN)

Amazon Whole Foods delivery

Amazon has announced its annual Prime Day will be on July 16 and run for 30 hours.
In the lead up to the day, Amazon has launched discounts for many of the other services under the Prime umbrella.
Amazon is encouraging its Prime customers, which already buy more, to further become entrenched in the Prime ecosystem.

Prime Day is coming — and this year, Amazon is making it about much more than deals and free shipping.

Prime Day is Amazon's made-up July holiday, where it heavily discounts items in a way similar to Black Friday. Its sales typically rival the highest sales days of the year.

It is, however, restricted to Prime members — just another perk the $120 a year club enjoys over regular Amazon shoppers. This year, however, Amazon is looking to get a little more out of its Prime members, and is hoping that they'll spend a little more time exploring all the benefits that Prime has to offer.

Sure everybody knows and loves the two-day free shipping that Prime provides. But now, Amazon is encouraging members to try Amazon Fresh, its grocery delivery service, with $30 off of any $100 order for new subscribers with the code "30FRESH".

Want to try Whole Foods 2-hour delivery via Prime Now? Amazon will give you $10 off your first two orders with the code "20PRIMEDAY".

Regular shipping speed more your style? Prime Pantry is also offering a discount — the code "PANTRY" unlocks $10 off an order $40 or over if customers start a 30-day free trial during Prime Day festivities.

That's not even including discounts on digital services like Freetime for Kids, Kindle Unlimited, Audible, and Amazon Music Unlimited, all of which are offering special promotions

Amazon is also discounting its own private label brands for Prime Day, many of which are already available only to Prime members, further highlighting another perk.

Taking all this together, Amazon is turning Prime Day into Prime Highlight Day. Yes, we still expect there to be deals, but the deals will highlight what is special about being a Prime member, and it's designed to drag customers deeper into the ecosystem so they can't even dream of quitting as it has become such a vital part of their everyday life.

These are services that Prime members might not even know exist, but the spotlight of Prime Day could get them noticed as the fanfare a deal bonanza draws eyeballs to Amazon.

Amazon has an interest attracting new members as well as keeping them happy, as Prime members still spend about double what non-members do on Amazon, and buy much more frequently.

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