Why do customers cancel the e-commerce membership service? Based on Amazon Prime

Abstract

The article examines the drivers of switching behavior in the context of e-commerce subscription service, which is becoming a key area of online retail services. This study adopted the Push-pull-mooring (PPM) framework to understand consumers’ withdrawal behavior. Structural equation modeling analysis was performed on data from 199 users of the Amazon Prime membership service. The results highlight that push factors (low frequency of online shopping, dissatisfaction, little benefits on membership service) and mooring factors (inertia, service overlap) have a significant direct impact on withdrawal decision making. However, the pull factor (threshold of free shipping) has an insignificant effect. This result could infer that consumers consider overall membership benefits rather than focus on top priorities such as free shipping when deciding to withdraw the membership services. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.