Modern online shoppers have come to not just love —but expect— free and fast delivery, a seamless checkout experience, and easy returns from their favorite online merchants and brands.
Amazon Prime members, in particular, pay an annual fee of $139 in exchange for a guarantee of that stellar customer experience – plus all the other savings, convenience, and entertainment that Prime offers in its membership. Now, with Amazon Buy with Prime, Prime shoppers can access all those benefits they know and love, from sites beyond Amazon.
Here’s how third-party merchants can leverage Buy with Prime for better customer experiences, improved conversion rates, and new customer acquisition.
What is Buy with Prime?
For brands hoping to convert Prime members into customers, Buy with Prime offers an easy way to offer the top-quality delivery and checkout experience that millions of shoppers love.
Upon its launch, Buy with Prime originally was available by invitation only. But as of August 2023, U.S.-based merchants leveraging Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) can participate by simply installing the Buy with Prime button on their site.
The Buy with Prime functionality allows Prime members to shop on a wide range of outside websites, using their saved checkout details and accessing Prime benefits (such as free delivery and returns). While in the past, shoppers using Buy with Prime could instantly purchase a single product with each order—similar to the “Buy Now” button on Amazon— now, they enjoy even more options.
- Buy with Prime’s cart functionality lets shoppers purchase multiple Buy with Prime products per transaction, increasing average order sizes. Buy with Prime cart also helps merchants optimize fulfillment costs, because Amazon can now fulfill multiple Buy with Prime products in each shipment.
- Buy with Prime Assist gives merchants the option to offer 24/7 post-order customer service support through Amazon at no cost, including a real-time chat feature. Shoppers who use Buy with Prime can ask questions related to shipping and delivery information or about returning a product they’ve ordered, which, in turn, gives merchants more time to focus on different ways to approach growing their businesses.
What does Buy with Prime mean for sellers?
Today, 70% of consumers admit they wish that retailers and brands offered similar services to Amazon Prime. And because the convenience and service quality it offers has proven to be unmatched, customers have already started to embrace Buy with Prime. For sellers, doing the same presents a massive business opportunity. Learn more about becoming a seller on Amazon here.
For example, if your brand has a web store and you’re already selling with FBA, Amazon Buy with Prime could dramatically simplify and streamline your ecommerce operations. And with sellers increasingly able to use the power of Amazon’s fulfillment services off the marketplace, they’re finally rising to the high bar of customer expectations.
- In fact, since its debut, Amazon claims the offering has increased shopper conversion by an average of 25% — thanks to its ease of use, free shipping, and familiar checkout experience.
- Buy with Prime has a direct impact on winning new customers, since, on average, three out of every four Buy with Prime orders are from new shoppers.
- Merchants realize, on average, a 25% increase in shopper conversion as a result of implementing Buy with Prime: showing plainly that more customers place an order with a third-party merchant when Buy with Prime is available versus when it is not.
Despite initial uncertainty about the value and security of Buy with Prime, it’s proven to be not just valuable for sellers overall — but a game-changer for smaller sellers with low brand visibility, or who have few resources to spend on customer service.
As a result, Buy with Prime is now available as an app for Shopify: through a partnership with Amazon designed to enable sellers to use the service in their web stores. Rather than competing head to head, Sopify and Amazon are joining forces to add massive value to their customers: a move that resulted in a 10% jump in Shopify’s stock price upon its announcement.
Here’s what you need to know.
What does Amazon Buy With Prime mean for Shopify?
Shopify merchants who also use Amazon’s fulfillment network have the option to add the Buy with Prime app from Shopify’s app ecosystem directly into Shopify Checkout. This gives Shopify merchants the choice to offer their products to Prime members on Shopify for the first time ever — while continuing to maintain control of their brand and their customer data from within Shopify admin.
If you’re a merchant selling using the Shopify webshop, you can manage your Buy with Prime business more efficiently with the Buy with Prime app for Shopify, including a seamless integration that lets you manage products, orders, returns, and more from Shopify’s admin panel. With ChannelEngine you can set up your Amazon Shopify integration in 4 easy steps - check out how.
Bringing customer experience and support excellence to all
Stellar customer experiences shouldn’t be limited only to leading brands with massive market share. And Prime benefits shouldn’t be limited to Amazon.
With Buy with Prime, Prime shoppers can access their favorite online shopping benefits across the web. This widespread accessibility has huge implications for customer experience in the future: raising the bar even higher when it comes to expectations for usability, efficiency, and free and fast shipping.
Finally, the benefits of Prime go beyond Amazon’s product portfolio. And while we don’t know where these advantages will go next —whether Buy with Prime is made available for merchants worldwide or more benefits for shoppers are announced— it’s clear that it’s fundamentally changed the way consumers and brands perceive and understand their value exchange.
