Buy With Prime, the program that lets retailers not named Amazon offer shoppers the Prime experience and promise, is rolling out for all U.S. merchants as of Jan. 31, the company announced, ten months after a beta launch by invitation only for select users of Fulfillment By Amazon.
The program lets retailers offer a “buy with Prime” badge on select items on their ecommerce website, which Amazon said has been shown to provide an average 25% conversion lift, based on its internal data during the test period. Benefits for Prime members include seamless checkout, same and next-day free shipping and simplified returns.
For the program, Amazon charges a service fee, a payment processing fee and fulfillment and storage fees that are calculated per unit.
“Allowing merchants to offer Prime shopping benefits on their own direct-to-consumer online stores is an exciting part of the Buy with Prime mission to help merchants of all sizes grow their business whether on Amazon or beyond,” said Peter Larsen, vice president of Buy With Prime, in a blog post announcing the expansion.
Amazon said one merchant, Trophy Skin, saw a 30% conversion rate boost since adding Buy with Prime, while another, Wyze, saw a 25% lift and added the designation to all eligible products in its catalog.
Along with the expansion, Amazon is letting merchants display customer reviews from Amazon.com on their ecommerce sites. Also, through a new integration with BigCommerce, users of that ecommerce platform can enable Buy With Prime on their storefronts through a no-code BigCommerce app.
“With BigCommerce and Amazon’s Buy with Prime, merchants can now reach new high-intent shoppers, drive higher conversions by directly offering the Prime delivery promise on their storefront and remarket to these new shoppers to drive higher customer lifetime value,” said Sharon Gee, vice president of revenue growth and general manager of omnichannel at BigCommerce, in a release.
Amazon said the program is compatible with “most online stores offered by ecommerce service providers,” but Shopify was not mentioned in the initial launch last year. In fact, Shopify warns its merchants not to install Buy With Prime, adding use of its code violates their terms of service and opens them up to the potential for fraudulent orders and theft of customer data, according to Marketplace Pulse.
In a popup warning when merchants try to enable Buy With Prime, Shopify says it cannot guarantee key aspects of its platform will function properly, including discounting, shipping rules, multi-currency rules, payment settings and order accuracy.