SEATTLE, WA - Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed just how massive his Prime subscriber base is in his most recent annual shareholder letter. With more than 100 million members, Amazon Prime has exceeded many analysts' estimates of the company's size.

“How do you stay ahead of ever-rising customer expectations?” Bezos asked of his readers. “There’s no single way to do it—it’s a combination of many things. But high standards (widely deployed and at all levels of detail) are certainly a big part of it. We’ve had some successes over the years in our quest to meet the high expectations of customers. We’ve also had billions of dollars’ worth of failures along the way. With those experiences as backdrop, I’d like to share with you the essentials of what we’ve learned (so far) about high standards inside an organization.”

Bezos reported that Amazon had added more Prime members in 2017 than any previous year and has shipped over five billion items worldwide through the paid membership service. Though the company was thought to have no more than 90 million subscribers as recently as last year, according to Business Insider, it has grown to 100 million members.

Bezos also wrote in the letter that that the company's multiple rounds of price cuts at Whole Foods were just the beginning of the company’s work with the grocer.

“In February, we introduced free two-hour delivery on orders over $35 for Prime members in select cities, followed by additional cities in March and April, and plan continued expansion across the U.S. throughout this year. We also expanded the benefits of the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card, enabling Prime members to get 5 percent back when shopping at Whole Foods Market,” he said. “Beyond that, customers can purchase Whole Foods’ private label products like 365 Everyday Value on Amazon, purchase Echo and other Amazon devices in over a hundred Whole Foods stores, and pick-up or return Amazon packages at Amazon Lockers in hundreds of Whole Foods stores. We’ve also begun the technical work needed to recognize Prime members at the point of sale and look forward to offering more Prime benefits to Whole Foods shoppers once that work is completed.”

Bezos took the time to delineate every aspect of Amazon’s dealing; you can read the entire letter here for more detail.

What will this big reveal mean for the retail behemoth's customers and shareholders? AndNowUKnow will continue to report the latest, as well as what is in store for Whole Foods next.