Amazon Buy With Prime Launches: Important Merchant Considerations

* What Is Buy With Prime?

One way to think about Buy With Prime is a mashup of a few concepts:

* Your D2C website

* Fulfillment by Amazon [FBA] (and in the future Amazon Warehousing & Distribution [AWD], I'm guessing)

* Amazon Pay / Login

* Prime benefits like free shipping and easy returns.

Simply, Prime members who shop your website will be able to purchase and shop like they are browsing a Prime item on Amazon. Checkout happens like an "Amazon Pay" type order.

* When Does It Launch?

Amazon has been in invite-only testing with Buy With Prime since September 2022, and it launches for anyone on January 31, 2023.

* Who Is It Best Suited For?

In my opinion: It's best suited for merchants who:

* Have used or are considering using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). (If you haven't used FBA before, Buy With Prime is a heavy lift).

This isn't just D2C brands. B2B distributors and others could use FBA if they don't want to develop a dropship capability.

* Have much more Amazon Marketplace revenue than Direct to Consumer revenue.

(The reason is, many of these merchants understand Amazon and want to improve their D2C website conversion and engagement. Amazon Buy With Prime could be a "bridge" for these brands).

This is not a restriction, just my opinion.

BigCommerce has released a plugin, so it's easiest on this platform at the moment. Other platforms require a longer implementation time by an agency.

This could change as Amazon gets more adoption with the service.

* Who Owns the Data?

From everything I've read, the data is shared. Prime buyers are told that only "limited" information is being shared with the merchant.

Brands are also told they can use this data but within limits.

* Can I Convert Buy With Prime Buyers to My Email Lists?

There is no opt-in at checkout, but that may not matter.

I suggest using your transactional e-mails (order confirmation, shipping updates, warranty, reviews) to create engagement and signup these Prime shoppers. Plus, they have already visited your website!

* Should Buy With Prime Be on Every Product Page?

Technically, it does not need to -- and should not be during your ramp-up period.

But practically, it would likely work better in the long run.

The reason is simple: buyer cognitive load. There's a reason almost every website on the Internet prefers a flat shipping rate strategy rather than a per-product calculated rate. If some products have Buy With Prime, and others do not, your website becomes harder to shop.

* What are the Downsides?

- You don't have the payment token; Amazon does.

- There is no tie-in to your loyalty program, points, private label credit cards, warranty, gift cards, etc. (Promos are supported)

- The order confirmation page is not yours. This can be a high-converting upsell page if you have the payment token.

- Amazon is now on your website - LOL ;-)

From an Amazon corporate point of view, Buy With Prime is the "perfect" bet for Amazon. Why?

* It leverages some of their greatest assets: fulfillment and Prime membership.

* It's risky. "Amazon Prime for a direct to consumer website" sounds like a crazy idea.

This could fail spectacularly.

There will be haters and contrarians. If this were an obvious slam dunk idea, Amazon would have already done it by now. The Direct to Consumer community will knee-jerk hate it. From a corporate point of view, this is actually a feature. It gives Amazon something to prove, and allows them to be underestimated.

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and many other great leaders know what many employees do not know: if you don't take big enough gambles, you will not achieve outsized returns.

Your biggest home runs will often be things that the world initially thought were crazy.

* It feeds their economic model. It helps their Prime buyers, and could even sign up more Prime buyers.

Prime is the straw that stirs the entire drink at Amazon (save, AWS).

* It builds their moat. The more items that qualify for Prime, the harder it is for competing retailers to match Amazon's Prime promise.

* What are the Benefits?

Amazon claims 25% conversion improvement.

It does not say "why" there is a 25% conversion improvement.

In truth, the Amazon checkout is not faster than the typical Shopify checkout. So it's not about the pages themselves.

However, Amazon has a few benefits:

#1 - Prime buyers are some of the most engaged and loyal worldwide. Audience matters.

#2 - Fast, free shipping they can trust. People trust Amazon to deliver more than anyone.

#3 - Easy returns.

Items 2 and 3 are not a given in the off-Amazon world.

It's notable to me that this setup should NOT require Amazon's checkout per-se. If the shipping is free, there is a Prime badge, the item is Fulfilled by Amazon, and there are easy returns, wouldn't a similarly configured Shopify checkout (basically 1-page in the express flow) gain a similar conversion lift?

This is not an idle question. Shopify is exploring this with its "Shop Promise" concept they are testing as well. Expect more noise this year about this.

Also, it's possible Amazon releases a more "configurable" Buy With Prime checkout that gives the merchant more control over the implementation experience in the future.