Amazon's U.S. Prime growth starting to slow

DAYTON, Ohio -- Amazon may need to make a bigger push internationally to continue growing its Prime membership base.

The growth in number of Prime members from the United States is starting to flatten out, according to a recent report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which has been tracking Amazon Prime memberships since 2012.

Over the past 12 months, the number of U.S. members grew about 8 percent, the lowest rate since CIRP started tracking the data. There are about 97 million American Prime members, the study says. That's a majority of the more than 100 million members Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company had across the world.

To Amazon's benefit, the company found that 61 percent of Amazon's U.S. customers are Prime members. The members tend to spend more than double and make almost twice as many Amazon purchases.

A Citigroup study from last month found that Prime memberships are expected to more than double to 275 million by 2029, with 80 percent of U.S. households expected to adopt the service.

But Amazon has much more room to grow outside of the United States, especially in India. The company has made significant investment in other countries over the last several years.

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