Over 80 million people use Amazon Prime. Whether you're using it just for the shipping or taking full advantage of their music, video, photo storage, Kindle book borrowing, and more, Amazon gives you plenty of bang for your buck. However, the company has decided to raise the price of its monthly Prime membership fee by 20 percent. A report by CNN provided a lot of the information used in this article.

How much will it be?

If you're paying for Amazon Prime on a monthly basis, you will now have to pay $12.99, instead of the usual $10.99. While the increase is significant, if you're an avid Amazon shopper, it's still worth it to have access to the latest Prime deals, free two or sometimes one-day shipping, and more.

The last time Amazon raised their prices was in 2015 when they went from a $79 yearly membership to $99.

Does it affect me?

While the news might be disappointing for monthly payers, if you're paying for your Prime on a yearly basis, you're in the clear. Amazon will keep the $99 price spot for this type of membership. On top of that, if you're lucky to be a student, you can still take advantage of the bargain price of $49 per year, for four years.

Why increase the price now?

Amazon is continuously growing as a company, and while their business deals with Whole Foods and the impending arrival of HQ2, CEO Jeff Bezos is still looking for Amazon to remain a top company. If it means increasing the prices a bit, they will not hesitate to do so.

Netflix also went through a controversial price increase in the past few years, and people still flock to the streaming service. A price hike is part of the business and it was bound to happen at some point.

Looking ahead

One-day and same-day shipping is growing aggressively, and this price hike could potentially mean even more products will have that option.

On top of that, Amazon has been involved in creating quality TV shows and movies, like "Transparent" or "Manchester by the Sea." With this increase in revenue from its monthly users, they can grow even further by investing in more content.

On top of that, the development of one-hour shipping with drones, grocery deliveries, and more, this money could be put to good use and improve all of those services.

However, Amazon runs the risk of having people just flock to the annual membership instead. Still, this would mean people are still willing to look at the site for all of their needs. Whether it's the latest tech gadget or the groceries that are crowding your to-do list. In the end, Amazon is still lucky to have a dedicated customer base.
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