Subscribe & Save - Amazon’s “Yes, and…”

Amazon Prime of course has become the standard for retailer loyalty and membership programs. Competitors like Walmart and Target scramble to replicate its success. So, it’s interesting to see that Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program is arguably even better for Amazon than Prime.

Last week we outlined how almost one-quarter of Amazon customers have an active Subscribe & Save (S&S) order - and we described the program in detail. Now, we look at how much S&S customers spend at Amazon each year, on their S&S items and overall. That data shows S&S orders add to total customer spending at Amazon, rather than just moving existing purchases to the S&S program. Of course, most S&S customers are also Prime members, but even those S&S shoppers without Prime membership (who can game the system a little to get some free shipping benefits tied to their S&S orders), spend considerably more.

In 2024, the average annual spending on S&S orders was $570 (Chart 1). For customers with S&S orders in 2024, average annual spending overall was $1,530. So, for customers with S&S orders, the value of those S&S orders was a little more than one-third of their total spending.