Is Amazon Abandoning Moms?

Amazon used to treat Moms special. Offering the same free two-day shipping as Amazon Prime, Amazon Mom loaded on heart warming extra benefits for Moms (and anyone else who thought to ask for them). The benefits included:

• No fee at all for the first 90 days of membership
• Extra "free" months added on when you placed an order worth $25 or more
• A Kindle book rental-a-month -- also free
• Purchases of diapers and other baby-related consumables received discounts of as much as 30% off Amazon's regular prices!

Last week, Amazon revealed that the high cost of supporting programs like Amazon Mom had helped to cut the company's profits in half. Turned out, supporting Mom carried a high price tag. And so Amazon is no longer showing Mom the love.

Amazon is informing its millions of Moms, of significant cuts to the program's benefits. The cuts include:

• The ability to earn extra months of free shipping is on the chopping block
• Kindle rental is no longer part of the terms of service
• Discounts on diaper purchases have been slashed by a third. Instead of 30%-off, the most Amazon Moms can hope to score today is 20% -- of which 15% already comes with Amazon's ordinary subscribe-and-save program.

Amazon's legions of Moms are not taking this cut kindly. Using the same strategy as Bank of America and Verizon customers, Moms are organizing on Change.org. Already signed by 1447 Moms, the petition states:

"Times are very rough, unemployment is high, money is getting harder and harder to come by. This discount is the only way some people can afford to buy the necessities they need for their children, I know it certainly helped my budget. Not to mention all the moms out there without easy access to transportation, or who may be handicapped, who used this program to have necessities delivered right to their door. It was a great program until all the "changes" were rolled out..Considering that Amazon.com had a profit of over 15 billion dollars last year, misleading customers, alienating them, and then refusing to honor their program is not a very warranted or smart practice."

Unfortunately, Amazon's financial picture is unsupportive of Mom. Reporting earnings for the final quarter of 2011, Amazon admitted that despite 35% sales growth, profitability had headed in the entirely wrong direction. Operating profit margins got cut in half, while net profits were down 57%. The culprit: massive spending on a number of initiatives -- everything from building new warehouses, to subsidizing "Prime" membership, to selling Kindles at a loss -- which decimated the company's profit margin. Although the Mom program was not mentioned, it has the same costs as Prime membership and probably caused damage to the bottom line.

Amazon is caught between profit and Mom creating a small PR nightmare. Many of the 1447 petition signers are leaving statements that read very much like bad Amazon Reviews.  For example:

"In addition to missing this program, of which I have been a fan, I think the ending of this program is being handled rather poorly. The program not only helped out with getting baby stuff, it also was increasing the amount that we would shop with Amazon because we were on their site more. Cancelling the program is a lose lose situation."

"I tend to prefer to support small businesses but I am a stay at home mom right now and times are tight, so this allowed me to be able to afford the 7th Generation wipes for my 7 mo. old. I am so disappointed in Amazon for taking this program away - it's exactly the type of corporate greed that keeps me from big co's. AND it is going to make me an activist AGAINST Amazon now too."

So far 1447 petition signed is far less than 306,000 petitions signed by Bank of America customers. However, there is no predicting what will happen when Moms get organized and begin to focus on getting Amazon to listen. Stay tuned for a message from your Mom.