Technology November 24, 2010, 5:00PM EST

What's in Amazon's Box? Instant Gratification

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Illustration By Peter Arkle; Cardboard Box: Judith Collins/Alamy

Prime came to life in late 2004, the result of a years-long search at Amazon for the right loyalty program. An Amazon software engineer named Charlie Ward first suggested the idea of a free shipping service via a suggestion box feature on Amazon's internal Web site, according to Ward's colleagues at the time. Bing Gordon, an Amazon board member and venture capitalist, says he came up with the "Prime" name, while other executives, including Chief Executive Jeffrey P. Bezos himself, devised the free two-day shipping offer, which exploited Amazon's ability to accelerate the handling of individual items in its distribution centers.

According to several former employees who participated in the program's creation, Bezos commissioned Prime in December 2004 at an unusual Saturday meeting in the boathouse behind his home in Medina, Wash. At the meeting, he told the small team of employees they could commandeer other company engineers and resources, and instructed them to ready Prime for a rollout in time for the company's fourth-quarter earnings report in January, less than two months away. The program is a "big idea," Bezos told the group that day in the boathouse, according to people who were there, and one that would help the company further capture the devotion of its best customers.

Bezos met with the group three times a week during that span. When the team members said they could not make the deadline, Bezos, eager to take advantage of the free publicity from earnings announcements, delayed the report by a week. One challenge was selecting the annual fee for the service; there were no clear financial models because no one knew how many customers would join or how it would affect their purchasing habits. The team ultimately went with $79 mainly because it's a prime number. "It was never about the $79 dollars. It was really about changing people's mentality so they wouldn't shop anywhere else," says Vijay Ravindran, who worked on the Prime team and is now chief digital officer for The Washington Post. After the launch, Prime broke even in just three months, not the two years the team had originally forecast. The results "blew us away," says Jeff Holden, who led the team and now runs Pelago, a startup that makes a mobile phone game called Whrll.

Amazon now offers Prime in the continental U.S, Britain, Germany, France, and Japan, and Schwietzer says the company is moving toward guaranteeing Prime shipments within a day instead of two days. Analysts are divided on whether the free shipping offers from Wal-Mart and others will affect Prime. Some point to the fact that these offers will expire after Christmas and do not guarantee two-day delivery, and say consumers will find Prime the better deal. Others, like Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray (PJC), think shoppers will think twice about paying that $79, at least for now. "Free shipping does undermine Prime," Munster says. "Wal-Mart made every person in America a Prime user overnight."

Another debate among Amazon analysts and customers is whether Prime is actually worth the money. Many members swear by the service and evangelize about it—Ruth Tinsley says she has gotten several friends to join. Others question whether Prime is really a good deal, since Amazon usually offers free shipping when customers buy more than $25 worth of items at a single time. The company now reliably ships to certain parts of the country such as New York and San Francisco within a few days and at no extra charge.

"I don't think it's a bargain at all," says Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology and marketing at Golden Gate University who recently got a free Prime trial and cancelled it after a month. "Really what people are paying for is immediate gratification."

The bottom line: Wal-Mart and others want to replicate the success of Amazon Prime, which has boosted customer loyalty and sales at the e-tailer.

Stone is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.

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