One of the key innovations of ride-hailing apps has been that their pricing is sensitive to demand: that is, prices go up as there are more customers demanding rides. Uber calls this surge pricing, whcih is such strong branding that people have started to call similar demand-sensitive pricing programs at other companies by the same term. Lyft calls it Prime Time, and did away with previously-announced caps on price hikes in February, but forgot to notify passengers. [More]
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Amazon Adds Marketplace Merchants To Prime Shipping
By 6.12.15 — Updated: 11.17.16
Back in January, Amazon expanded eligibility for its $35 Super Saver Shipping to items shipped by merchants in its Marketplace who already offer free shipping. Merchandise that doesn’t ship from an Amazon warehouse now counts toward the $35 free shipping threshold. Now they’re adding even more sellers to the virtual Amazon warehouse: selected large shippers will now be part of the Prime unlimited 2-day shipping program. [More]
Amazon Prime Won’t Charge Extra For Streaming Ultra HD Video
By 11.12.14
With prices dropping — and some sets available for around $1,000 — Ultra HD or 4K TV is gradually grabbing a foothold in consumers’ homes. Yet there is still little native content available for these sets. That may change soon with Amazon confirming it will begin offering 4K video to Amazon Prime customers before the year is out, and it won’t charge extra. [More]
Amazon Clears Up Dates For New Prime Pricing
By 3.13.14
As we reported this morning, the annual subscription rate for Amazon Prime is going up from $79 a year to $99 a year. However, there was some confusion over exactly when that change was going to take place. [More]
Amazon Jacks Up Rate On Prime Memberships To $99/Year
By 3.13.14
Amazon said in January that it was considering increasing the annual subscription rate on its Amazon Prime program — which includes free two-day shipping on many purchases and access to the site’s library of streaming videos — by twenty to forty dollars. This morning, the e-tailer began notifying customers that it is indeed jacking up that rate from $79/year to $99/year. [More]
