Amazon ends popular feature that lets members share perk with other users

Amazon is set to discontinue a long-standing feature of its Prime membership, which allowed subscribers to extend free shipping benefits to individuals outside their primary household.

From 1 October, the online retail giant will cease the 'Prime Invitee' programme, encouraging those previously benefiting from shared accounts to sign up for their own subscriptions.

In its place, Amazon is rolling out 'Amazon Family', a revised scheme that permits account holders to share the coveted two-day shipping perk with just one other adult residing at the same address. Additionally, it accommodates up to four teenagers (provided they were added before 7 April) and up to four child profiles.

Prime members pay $14.99 monthly or $139 annually.

This strategic shift comes as the Seattle-based company significantly invests in expanding its delivery infrastructure across the US, aiming to provide faster service to customers in less densely populated regions. The company stated in late July that its service now reaches 1,000 of the more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural communities targeted for coverage by the end of the year.

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It comes as Amazon doubled its Prime Day sales to four days this year, but Americans' signups for the service have slowed down.

Sign-ups to Amazon's Prime service — which offers discounts and fast delivery on products, as well as access to its video service Amazon Prime among other perks — failed to meet last year's total and the company's target for 2025, according to company data reviewed by Reuters.

According to that analysis, Amazon registered 5.4 million American sign-ups in the 21 days ahead of Prime Day, and its four sale days, which ran from July 8 to July 11. The total sign-ups fell approximately 116,000 short of last year's sign-ups, and 106,000 below Amazon's target goal for the year, marking an approximately 2 percent decline in both.

During the four-day Prime Day period, Amazon signed up 1.6 million Prime users, which exceeded the company's internal target by 6 percent, according to Reuters.

But it failed to hit its targets in the three weeks leading up to the Prime Day event, according to the same data.

The analysis provides a rare look into Amazon's generally closely guarded Prime data.

Despite Reuter's analysis, Amazon still celebrated its "record breaking" number of enrollments.

"Prime membership continues to show strong growth and customer engagement in the U.S. and internationally," the company said in a statement to the outlet.