After all these years selling Kindle ebooks, I’m surprised Amazon has never come out with some of Kindle Points rewards program—it seems like something that would be right up their alley.
It would work something like this: Every time you buy a Kindle book, you earn Kindle Points, and then when you reach a certain level you can cash in your Kindle Points toward the purchase of more Kindle books, or possibly other Kindle accessories and products.
Kobo has been doing this very thing since 2015 with their Kobo Super Points program.
It might not be the kind of thing that appeals to casual readers, but it gives avid readers a reason to accumulate points to get more books at a discount.
It could also be used as a way for Amazon to avoid in-app payment fees by using Kindle Points to purchase new books, and it could also be used as a workaround to offer discounts on ebooks that normally cannot be discounted.
With Amazon’s new Kindle Vella tangent, people can purchase short story episodes using Tokens, but that’s only with Kindle Vella stories (which, ironically, cannot be read on Kindles, but that’s a topic for a different post).
Amazon also recently hosted a Kindle Summer Rewards program, but it was by invite only and it doesn’t seem like very many people were invited (when I click the link it just says, “Sorry… this program has limited access while in beta.”)
Since I couldn’t participate I’m not sure how it works exactly, but reading comments at MobileRead it sounds like you get points for buying Kindle books and then once you reach a certain threshold you get a $4 coupon to use toward future purchases, so perhaps Amazon is testing the idea with a small group of people before widely releasing it, or maybe it’s just a one-time thing like the Kindle Challenge they did at the start of the year.
Either way, I think a Kindle Reward Points program could make shopping for Kindle ebooks a little more interesting, and it would be nice to have a way to earn points to purchase overpriced ebooks that you normally wouldn’t purchase.
I agree with you. It has to be good business to find ways to get people to buy more ebooks.
I have the Kindle Summer Rewards in my Amazon account. I noticed it a few weeks ago when “get xxx Kindle points” appeared on all the Amazon book pages. If they sent an email about it, I didn’t see it.
It works like this:
– Earn Kindle Points for every dollar you spend on books, and from special offers.
– Redeem for eBook credits. Get $4 for every 400 Kindle Points.
– Collect badges for reading and more.
Special Offers
– Borrow from Prime Reading, earn 300 pts August 2 – 11 (one time only)
– Buy any print book, earn 500 pts August 2 – 11 (one time only)
– Earn 5 pts/dollar on eBooks July 7 – September 22
– Earn 2 pts/dollar on print books July 7 – September 22
Interesting… Can the credits be used to purchase any Kindle book or do you have to chose one from a specific list?
I am part of this as well. It’s been neat! Didn’t realize it was a limited beta. But yes, you can use the points on any ebooks as far as I know. It’s just a basic $4 ebook credit, good for 30 days or something.
Yes, I didn’t subscribe or get an invite, it just appeared in my account and I noticed when browsing books on the “points”. I had cashed in one already for 4.00, and now working on my second for 4.00. Sometimes they do temporary incentive rewards like early 500 points for spending this much by this date, earn 100 by signing up (which everyone gets after a few days who is eligible), etc.
I like your idea of rewards programs and wish they’d expand on that