Americans Are Splurging On Amazon Each Month: For Some, It Could Be More Addictive Than Alcohol

E-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN launched its Amazon Prime membership program back in 2005 with an annual cost of $79. The main perk of the plan was free two-day shipping for customers.

Benefits such as Prime Day were added later, providing exclusive deals for consumers.

In honor of Prime Day 2023 (July 11-12), here’s a look at how much Americans spend on this popular shopping day, on Amazon monthly and what they’re willing to give up for the convenience of getting items shipped directly to their homes.

What Happened:  A survey from Upgraded Points, published in June, shows exactly how much the average American spends on Amazon a month.

According to the survey, Americans spend an average of $91.75 monthly on Amazon. The survey breaks down that Amazon Prime members, who enjoy free two-day shipping, spend an average of $110 on Amazon monthly. Non-Prime members spend $38 per month on Amazon on average.

Of those polled, 25% said they buy on Amazon an average of once a week. Thirty-three percent of those surveyed said they have spent more on Amazon in the last year than what they currently have in their savings account.

Among the top reasons listed for shopping on Amazon are:

• Broad selection of merchandise: 80.1%
• Free and fast shipping: 61.8%
• Easy shipment tracking: 60.7%
• Free and easy returns: 52.5%
• High number of product returns: 39.8%

The top products listed by those polled that they buy on Amazon were electronics/tech, 54.5%; clothing/accessories, 48.1% and toiletries/personal care, 41.5%.

Amazon launched its first Amazon Prime Day on July 15, 2015. The company called Prime Day a “global shopping event” that would offer more deals than Black Friday, in reference to the annual physical retail shopping day.

The Prime Day holiday, which offers exclusives for Prime members, saw the average American spend $117 across the two-day shopping holiday.

Generation X members are listed as the biggest spenders on Prime Day, with an average of $148 spent.

So just how convenient and potentially addictive is shopping on Amazon? The poll also asked consumers what they would be willing to give up to keep using Amazon.

Fifty-seven percent of people said they would rather give up alcohol for a year than give up Amazon.

In the poll, 34% of women said they would give up sex for a full year instead of getting rid of Amazon. And 26% of Americans polled said they would give up traveling for a full year in order to keep their beloved Amazon.

Related Link: Gene Munster Sees Massive Opportunity For Amazon In Retail And Logistics, Expects Investors To Be Rewarded 

Why It’s Important: Amazon continues to be one of the largest retailers in the world and loyalty from Prime customers and non-Prime customers may be one of the biggest reasons as shown above.

In the first quarter of 2023, Amazon reported revenue of $127.4 billion, which was up 9% year-over-year. North American sales made up $76.9 billion of the total and were up 11% year-over-year.

In 2022, Amazon reported revenue of $514 billion, which was up 9% year-over-year. Full-year North American segment revenue was $315.9 billion, which was up 13% year-over-year.

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world with a market capitalization of $1.32 trillion.

Read Next: Amazon Set For Record-Breaking Prime Day Despite Economic Frugality 

Photo: Shutterstock