Now Amazon wants to clean your home

In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote, “We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member.” To make good on that proposition, Amazon currently offers free two-day deliveries on over 30 million items, free same-day deliveries on hundreds of thousands of products, Sunday deliveries along with free video streaming of original series and other programming, free storage on the Amazon Cloud, the Kindle Lending Library, discounted rates on its new streaming music subscription services, etc. Now, according to reports, it appears as though Amazon plans to add housekeeping services as a perk for its Prime members. The Seattle Times appears to have been the first to spot two job postings on Amazon’s site seeking “Amazon Assistants” who will work as two-person teams “tidying up around the home, laundry, and helping put groceries and essentials like toilet paper and paper towels away.” The goal is to create “errand-free” homes for Prime members. This new service appears different than Amazon Home Services, launched last year, that helps shoppers find and hire local professionals a la Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor. The latest Amazon news follows reports in September that the company is working on a new delivery option for Prime members that would allow designated couriers to enter residences to deliver items when customers are not home. Amazon charges an annual fee of $99 for its Prime service. Members who also use Amazon Fresh pay an additional monthly fee of $14.99 to have groceries delivered to their homes. The annual fee provides cash flow while tethering customers to Amazon’s service. Prime members spend twice what non-members spend, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). Seventy-three percent who sign up for Amazon’s free 30-day Prime trial membership make it permanent, according to CIRP. Ninety-one percent of first year subscribers renew their memberships for a second year, while 96 percent who have been members for two years re-up for a third time.

• Amazon looks to clean house — literally – The Seattle Times
• Amazon hints at housecleaning service in Prime – USA Today
• Annual Letter to Shareholders – Amazon.com
• Amazon’s Prime retention rates are just sick – RetailWire
• Will customers give Amazon the keys to their smart homes? – RetailWire
• Amazon’s Prime Now is going mobile and beyond – RetailWire
• Amazon guarantees service for household projects – RetailWire