Amazon South Africa director explains why Prime is so cheap locally

[Luis]

Amazon South Africa director explains why Prime is so cheap locally

Amazon managing director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Robert Koen, has explained that the low price of the Prime Membership in South Africa aligned with the company's pricing in other emerging markets.

Amazon launched the Prime subscription in South Africa in early June 2026, offering subscribers free and fast delivery, video streaming, and other benefits for R59 per month or R399 per year.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Hopefully Netflix and the rest will start taking notes.

Along with Playstation and Xbox and Steam.

 

[Werner1975]

Can't fault their pricing, value for money and delivery service. Now if Amazon only had a wider selection on general groceries like Checkers and Pick&Pay they would be the undisputed king of online shopping in SA.

 

[Johand]

"We are cheap now because we are forcing out competitors. Wait until we have a monopoly."

 

[L-Dog]

I know people who have succesfully been able to reduce the cost of their Microsoft Subscription arguing teh weak rand etc, wonder if it will work with Netflix, Disney etc ? Either way great price and Takealot also seems to be profitable all this does is spell disaster for traditional retail.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I know people who have succesfully been able to reduce the cost of their Microsoft Subscription arguing teh weak rand etc, wonder if it will work with Netflix, Disney etc ? Either way great price and Takealot also seems to be profitable all this does is spell disaster for traditional retail.

I mean if they all just wake up and realise R59 a month sold to 10,000,000 people is far more than R229 a month sold to 100,000 people then they would all be sitting pretty.

 

[Lawnchairman]

Best bang for buck!

 

[ToxicBunny]

Can't fault their pricing, value for money and delivery service. Now if Amazon only had a wider selection on general groceries like Checkers and Pick&Pay they would be the undisputed king of online shopping in SA.

TBH, I'm less jonesing for general groceries, and more for Amazon products themselves.

 

[SauRoNZA]

TBH, I'm less jonesing for general groceries, and more for Amazon products themselves.

Yeah can't say I would even look there for groceries as in food.

The odds and ends I've now been buying there has been things like coin batteries and such you don't usually get at your average supermarket and was a Takealot mainstay until now.

 

[Lupus]

Hopefully Netflix and the rest will start taking notes.

Along with Playstation and Xbox and Steam.

Xbox already dropped the ridiculous amount for ultimate from almost 400 bucks a month to R239, mainly cause of people going screw this.
Netflix would only do it if enough people unsubscribe.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Xbox already dropped the ridiculous amount for ultimate from almost 400 bucks a month to R239, mainly cause of people going screw this.
Netflix would only do it if enough people unsubscribe.

Yeah the subs aren't too bad I was thinking more about the standard game pricing.

Again they just need a bean counter to figure out more sales = more money, not less sales at a higher price. Netflix at least has plenty of tiers, but then only the top ones are comparable to Amazon Prime so there's that.

 

[Zellephant]

I know people who have succesfully been able to reduce the cost of their Microsoft Subscription arguing teh weak rand etc, wonder if it will work with Netflix, Disney etc ? Either way great price and Takealot also seems to be profitable all this does is spell disaster for traditional retail.

Uhm - you sure about that? Takealot has never shown a real profit. Financial Year ending March 2026, they for the first time in their entire history showed an operating profit, for that financial year, but that doesnt account for accumulated losses over the preceeding 20 years - it has also not provided any meaningful divident to Naspers/Prosus at all.

 

[L-Dog]

Uhm - you sure about that? Takealot has never shown a real profit. Financial Year ending March 2026, they for the first time in their entire history showed an operating profit, for that financial year, but that doesnt account for accumulated losses over the preceeding 20 years - it has also not provided any meaningful divident to Naspers/Prosus at all.

Many companies Uber, Rivian, Snapchat all ipo'd / listed while making significant losses. It takes years to turn these companie profitable and you always pay for future value / cashflow. Takealot is fine but it now needs to generating proper profits going forwards if it makes a loss or consecutive years of losses then they are in big trouble.

 

[Bad Ballie]

The price will definitely go up; the question is then; will they will keep it to a reasonable amount or price themselves out of the market

 

[Smiggles]

Don't shop enough at Amazon to justify the price so no thanks.

 

[FiestaST]

Good bang yup, but not enough for me at this point.

 

[FiestaST]

Thread 'Are you keeping your Prime subscription?'

Jul 1, 2026

Almost time for many of us to decide...

• bwana
• Replies: 52
• Forum: Ask MyBroadband

• 

 

[RaptorSA]

Cool, I missed the memo on it being launched
Will sign up tonight, for R59PM it's a no brainer since even sailing the high seas can waste enough of my times to make this option attractive.

"We are cheap now because we are forcing out competitors. Wait until we have a monopoly."

True, but I think at this point most of us expect this to happen eventually
I'll just cancel it again like I cancelled all the other services who took me for a p**s.