Amazon is an e-commerce giant known for selling a vast selection of products on its website. LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform used by over 740 million members worldwide. LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service offering additional features beyond the free version. So does Amazon offer subscriptions to LinkedIn Premium? Let’s explore this in more detail.
The Short Answer
No, Amazon does not directly sell or offer subscriptions to LinkedIn Premium. LinkedIn Premium memberships must be purchased directly through LinkedIn. However, Amazon does sell physical and digital gift cards that can be used to pay for a LinkedIn Premium subscription.
Purchasing LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service that unlocks additional features such as:
- Seeing who viewed your profile
- Sending InMail messages to anyone, even if you’re not connected
- Seeing expanded profiles beyond just name and title
- Taking unlimited advanced courses
- Accessing more search filters
- Receiving profile help from LinkedIn experts
There are three tiers of LinkedIn Premium subscriptions:
- Premium Career – $29.99/month billed annually ($359.88 total per year)
- Premium Business – $47.99/month billed annually ($575.88 total per year)
- Premium Sales – $64.99/month billed annually ($779.88 total per year)
These subscriptions can only be purchased directly through LinkedIn by visiting the premium page and selecting a plan. There is no option to purchase LinkedIn Premium through Amazon.
Using Amazon Gift Cards for LinkedIn Premium
Although Amazon does not directly sell LinkedIn Premium subscriptions, there is an indirect way to use Amazon for Premium payment. Amazon sells both digital and physical gift cards that can be used to add money to your LinkedIn account balance. This LinkedIn account balance can then be used to pay for Premium membership.
Here are the types of Amazon gift cards that can fund a LinkedIn Premium subscription:
- Physical Amazon gift cards – These are gift cards with a printed code that are mailed or can be purchased in stores. The code can be redeemed on Amazon for digital credit added to your Amazon account.
- Digital Amazon gift cards – These are gift cards delivered by email that provide digital code for Amazon credit. No physical card is mailed.
- Amazon reloadable gift cards – These are physical gift cards that can be registered to your Amazon account and refilled with more funds whenever needed.
The key is that all these Amazon gift cards provide digital Promotional Credit that can be used to purchase other digital items like LinkedIn subscriptions. Here are the steps to use Amazon gift cards for LinkedIn Premium:
- Purchase a physical or digital Amazon gift card and redeem it to your Amazon account for credit.
- Use the Amazon credit to purchase a LinkedIn gift card which can be delivered digitally by email.
- Redeem the LinkedIn gift card on your LinkedIn account to add funds to your balance.
- Use the LinkedIn account balance to purchase the Premium subscription directly through LinkedIn.
So in summary, Amazon gift cards can indirectly fund a LinkedIn Premium purchase but the subscription must still be purchased directly on LinkedIn. Amazon simply provides a way to get gift card balance transferred to your LinkedIn account.
Why Amazon Doesn’t Sell LinkedIn Premium
There are a few potential reasons why Amazon does not directly sell LinkedIn Premium subscriptions:
- LinkedIn wants full control over the Premium membership process from purchase to cancellation. Selling through third-parties could complicate matters.
- Premium gives LinkedIn recurring revenue. Direct selling builds a closer financial relationship.
- The Premium platform is deeply integrated into LinkedIn’s systems. It would be difficult to outsource sales and provisioning.
- Premium pricing and package options change somewhat regularly. LinkedIn wants to control offers directly.
Essentially, LinkedIn Premium is a key part of LinkedIn’s business model and they want full control over the sales and distribution. Allowing Amazon or other third-parties to sell subscriptions could lead to a disjointed user experience.
Other Services Amazon Doesn’t Sell
LinkedIn Premium is far from the only service Amazon doesn’t directly sell access to. Many other popular digital subscriptions and software are also not available for purchase on Amazon. Some other examples include:
- Netflix and other streaming services
- Spotify Premium music subscriptions
- YouTube premium video subscriptions
- Adobe Creative Cloud software subscriptions
- Microsoft 365 and Office software subscriptions
- Consumer antivirus and VPN services
In most cases, the software or service provider prefers direct control over the sales, distribution, and support for these digital products. And providers that operate recurring subscription models seem especially reluctant to offer the subscriptions through third-party e-commerce platforms.
Options for Buying Subscriptions on Amazon
While Amazon may not directly sell access to many popular subscription services, they do offer some options related to subscriptions:
- Gift cards that provide funds to pay for subscriptions
- Hardware devices or accessories related to a service
- Books, guides, or tutorial material for a software product
So when searching Amazon for services like LinkedIn Premium or Netflix, you may find these related items even if the core subscription access is not available.
The Benefits of Direct Subscription Sales
There are some good reasons why many subscription services avoid third-party sales platforms like Amazon and directly control purchases instead:
- Better customer data – Direct sales allows gathering detailed customer information and feedback during purchase.
- Ongoing revenue stream – Recurring subscriptions mean ongoing business, so providers want close financial relationships.
- Sales promos and targeting – Direct sales channels allow subscription providers flexibility to create targeted offers.
- Cancelation control – Providers can make cancelation frictionless or difficult to manage churn.
- Experience consistency – Removing third-parties decreases variability in the purchase and setup experience.
The tradeoff is that providers have to handle all customer acquisition, payments, support, and account management themselves rather than leveraging platforms like Amazon. But for services focused on recurring subscription revenue, the benefits of controlling the subscriber relationship often outweigh the costs of direct sales.
The Limited Role of Amazon
Amazon would likely prefer to sell access to popular digital subscription services directly as it could expand their business. But most major software and subscription providers are wary of letting a third-party control any aspect of their customer experience and financial transactions. So Amazon’s role is limited in these cases.
Some subscriptions may allow Amazon payments for convenience but still handle account creation themselves. And Amazon can sell related products or gift cards even when the core service is not available. But for the foreseeable future, those wanting premium subscription access will have to visit provider websites, not Amazon, to purchase it.
Conclusion
Amazon does not directly sell LinkedIn Premium subscriptions. The premium packages must be purchased through LinkedIn to create the account and access the features. However, Amazon does provide an avenue to fund Premium by selling gift cards that can add money to a LinkedIn account balance. The key reasons Amazon doesn’t sell access directly are:
- LinkedIn wants full control of the Premium subscription process
- Recurring subscriptions represent critical ongoing revenue
- The tight platform integration makes outsourcing difficult
- LinkedIn wants to control pricing and package changes
LinkedIn Premium certainly isn’t the only subscription unavailable on Amazon. Services focused on recurring revenue via subscriptions tend to avoid third-party distribution. While inconvenient for customers, selling direct allows providers to control the customer experience from purchase to cancellation. So Amazon is limited to selling related products for many popular digital subscriptions.