Amazon on Oct. 1 is axing the remnants of “Prime Invitee,” a program ended 10 years ago that allowed Prime members to share free shipping with people outside their households. Some legacy users can instead opt for Amazon Family, which carries free shipping plus other benefits, though that program is only available to people within the same household.
The e-commerce giant may be hoping to boost Prime membership by shifting Invitee users to their own accounts, though the participation level of Invitee was probably not very high, according to Rick Watson, founder and CEO of RMW Commerce.
“I didn’t even know it was a thing,” he said by phone.
An Amazon spokesperson, speaking by phone, declined to provide the number of Invitee participants, but noted that the program, which launched in the U.S. in 2009, hasn’t been in operation since 2015.
Still, Amazon has entered a period where Prime is getting saturated, Watson said. “When growth is going great, you don’t need to worry about stuff like this. When growth starts slowing down a little bit, you start diving a little deeper,” he said.
Prime Day, which this year spanned four days, failed to stoke Prime membership growth this year compared to last, according to research from Reuters this week. Three weeks ahead of the event, U.S. signups were down 2% compared to 2024 and against the company’s own goals, according to that report, which cited internal Amazon documents.
An Amazon spokesperson disputed Reuters’ account, saying in a statement that “Prime Day 2025 and the three weeks leading up to the event had record-breaking Prime customer sign-ups worldwide.” The company declined to provide numbers.
“Prime membership continues to show strong growth and customer engagement in the U.S. and internationally, as reported in our second-quarter earnings,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to see robust adoption globally as we enhance the Prime value proposition through faster delivery speeds, expanded entertainment offerings, and additional shopping benefits.”
The sales event garnered record sales, though that statement is not accompanied by specifics.