OREANDA-NEWS. June 02, 2016. That's according to survey data published by a group out of Chicago, the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), which found that 73 percent of the folks who started a 30-day trial wound up paying their \\$99 membership for the full year. The renewal rate is even higher for first-year members signing on for a second year: 91 percent chose to stay on, and Amazon's retention rate climbed to a whopping 96 percent for those who were starting a third cycle.

The survey reflects 2,108 US Amazon Prime members who shopped on Amazon.com from March 2013 to March 2016. Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Amazon's library of streaming video and member-only pricing are part of the reason customer keep coming back for more, says CIRP partner Josh Lowitz, and I agree. An Amazon Prime member myself, I came for the faster shipping benefits and stayed for the music, movies and item discounts. (Ok, the shipping perks are still a major draw.) I even bought into an Amazon Echo, which uses Prime Music if you don't have a separate streaming music account from services like Spotify or Pandora.

Amazon Prime isn't exactly like the famous line from Hotel California -- you really can leave. It's just that most members don't seem to want to.