Online retail giant Amazon.com (AMZN) announced on Thursday (via CNBC) that it has raised the price of Prime membership by as much as $20, to $99 a year for existing customers.
Prime, which has become very popular since first introduced nine years ago, offers free, two-day shipping on certain items and currently costs $79 a year. Amazon also bundles its video streaming and Kindle libraries with the subscription.
The new pricing will take effect when the membership is set to renew. According to the company, the Prime Fresh membership will remain unchanged at $299, and Amazon Student members will pay $49 per year.
The price increase was somewhat expected. Amazon’s CFO Tom Szkutak said in late January that growing transportation costs may cause the company to add between $20 to $40 to the subscription fee.
Amazon shares are up around $8 in pre-market hours, trading at $378 and change as of 8:35AM EDT.
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