Amazon.com Inc. is expanding a program that lets Prime subscribers use the company’s speedy delivery service when shopping on other websites.

Introduced in April by invitation only, “Buy With Prime” will be generally available in the United States by the end of the month, according to Amazon. Pointing to the enduring power of the Prime membership program, the company said the number of customers who bought a product after clicking on it increased 25% on sites using the service.

In interviews, merchants said “Buy With Prime” boosts sales because shoppers are confident their products will be delivered quickly and because they don’t have to provide their personal information to an unfamiliar website. In another potential boon for independent web proprietors, Amazon will now let them post product reviews that currently run on its own site.

Amazon, suffering slowing sales as the pandemic-era boom cools, is looking for new ways to leverage its sprawling logistics operation. The company has long known that many Prime subscribers shop on other websites. Extending Prime perks to those online stores lets Amazon collect more shipping fees. The service also gives Amazon a weapon in its fight with Canadian rival Shopify Inc. Shopify provides ecommerce software to millions of web stores and has been trying, with mixed success, to muscle into the logistics business.

Amazon is No. 1 in the 2022 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 database. The Top 1000 ranks North American web merchants by sales. Amazon is also No. 3 in the Digital Commerce 360 Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

Retailers use ‘Buy With Prime’ to expedite delivery

Amazon in 2022 lost U.S. market share for the first time, according to Insider Intelligence. There are also signs that the company is running out of new Prime subscribers in its home market. Amazon had about 172 million members as of June 30, the same as six months earlier, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, a Chicago firm that tracks Prime members via consumer surveys.

The “Buy With Prime” service adds value for Prime members by bringing fast delivery to other sites and helps merchants boost sales with minimal investment, Amazon vice president Peter Larsen said in an interview.

“If you offer ‘Buy With Prime,’ the increase in shopping conversion will more than offset the fees we are charging,” he said.

Wyze Labs Inc., a security camera and smart-home device maker in Kirkland, Washington, said “Buy With Prime” helped prolong a Christmas promotion because shoppers knew their packages would arrive in time.

Merchants weigh the service’s benefits

The former Amazon executives who founded Wyze initially balked at working with their former employer. They considered it a direct competitor. But they were struggling to reduce delivery times to less than an average of 14 days. Since joining “Buy With Prime,” average delivery times are down to seven days, and most Amazon orders get to customers in two to three days, said Wyze e-commerce chief Logan Dunn.

“We had a conversation with senior leadership. ‘Are we ready to give Amazon more of our information? We compete with Amazon,’” he said. “We felt the risk was pretty low and the reward was big.”

Guardian Baseball, a Louisville, Kentucky-based firm, sells its own line of sports gear including bats, cleats and gloves. It said the Amazon service helped narrow delivery times from seven days to just two or three for the same rates it paid other carriers. Fast delivery paid off in November and December, when 25% of shoppers on Guardian’s website used “Buy with Prime,” said co-founder Matt Kubancik.

“Our goal wasn’t to reduce costs,” he said. “Our goal is to get it to customers in two or three days so if they order something on Wednesday, they’ll have it in time for their weekend tournament.”

Amazon for years has worked to expand its ecommerce success beyond its own webstore. It relaunched its payments service Amazon Pay in 2013 to let customers shop on other sites using payment information stored with Amazon after killing earlier iterations. In 2015, it began closing its Amazon Web Store business, an earlier attempt to sell services that let online merchants create their own stores similar to Shopify.

Amazon to shut three UK warehouses, impacting 1,200 staff

Amazon plans to close three United Kingdom warehouses this year in an operation that will impact about 1,200 employees.

Hemel Hempstead, Doncaster and Gourock will shut this year, making way for two new fulfillment centers, Amazon said in a Jan. 10 statement. The new sites will ultimately create 2,500 jobs and employees at the affected warehouses will be offered jobs at other facilities, the company said.

The Seattle-based ecommerce giant said earlier this month that it plans to eliminate more than 18,000 jobs. That represents about 1% of total employees and the biggest layoffs in its history. Amazon is adjusting to a dramatic slowdown in online shopping after consumers resumed their pre-pandemic retail habits. The company has delayed warehouse openings and halted hiring in its retail group.

The two new sites will be in Peddimore in the West Midlands, and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, and are set to open in the next three years, a spokesman said.

The GMB union called the move a “kick in the teeth” for staff. It said it was unreasonable to ask employees to move to a different location, “which may be many miles away.”

GMB members have voted to strike at Amazon’s warehouse in Coventry, a first for the U.K., in a walk out scheduled for Jan. 25. The strike over pay won’t directly affect Amazon customers. Amazon is “proud” of the wages it offers, the company said. Amazon said its packages start at a minimum of £10.50 ($12.75) to £11.45 per hour, depending on location.

The UK’s national living wage, for adults 23 years old and above, will rise to £10.42 in April from £9.50.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.