Amazon Pushes Shipping Services for Online Merchants

Amazon is reportedly capitalizing on the void left by Shopify’s withdrawal from shipping services earlier this year.

The Buy With Prime service that Amazon launched last year and highlighted Thursday (Sept. 14) at its Accelerate sellers conference allows online merchants to offer fast delivery of customer orders placed on other websites, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The company revealed Thursday that three out of four Buy With Prime purchases are made by customers new to that particular online brand, highlighting the trust customers have in the Amazon experience, including delivery, according to the report. Merchants using Buy With Prime have experienced a 25% increase in sales conversion.

With Amazon capturing nearly 38% of all online spending in the United States, the company is shifting its focus toward providing services to online merchants rather than solely selling products directly, the report said.

Direct-to-consumer sales are rising, with a projected 17% increase this year, reaching $182.6 billion, per the report. This growth rate is almost double the overall online spending growth rate of 9.3%. While Amazon did not disclose the number of merchants using Buy With Prime, the company is committed to expanding the service. 

Previous tensions between Amazon and Shopify seem to have subsided, as Shopify abandoned its plans to compete directly with Amazon in logistics and struck a deal to allow merchants using its eCommerce tool to utilize Amazon’s logistics network, according to the report. Merchants who have tried Buy With Prime have expressed satisfaction with the service, citing increased sales and customer trust.

While there is a growing interest among merchants to diversify to other channels, fulfillment has always been a challenge, the report said. Amazon’s timing with the Buy With Prime service may meet this demand as online merchants seek solutions for multi-channel selling. 

Amazon introduced Buy With Prime last April, letting merchants sell products directly from their websites. Through the service, Amazon’s payments and fulfillment services are available to buyers at checkout, letting shoppers use their Prime membership to get benefits like faster, no-cost delivery.

Like Amazon, Walmart has also been promoting its offering of fulfillment-as-a-service, offering smaller merchants a single point of access to handle the steps that occur after the buy button is clicked.