Big retailers think small, whether it’s Amazon’s Buy With Prime or Walmart Go Local. Similarly, through a pair of new initiatives that happened to be launched, more small and medium-sized brands are thinking about how to do business with and through their respective platforms.
Meanwhile, Amazon announced this week that it will soon offer Prime’s fully streamlined suite of ordering, payment, and fulfillment services to startups and brands that can’t afford to provide their own.of Presentation Amazon says the turnkey service is no longer an invite-only product and will be available to merchants nationwide later this month.
In short, Amazon’s famous one-click ordering, free shipping, and ease of returns are about to get even bigger.
“Buy with Prime enables millions of US-based Prime members to shop directly from merchants’ online stores using the trusted experience they have come to expect from Amazon. said on the blog this week.
When you put your product in front of Amazon’s 200+ million existing Prime members, you’ll see the familiar Prime logo and get the same free shipping and easy returns they’re used to, but future retail It just wasn’t attractive enough for traders. The ecommerce leader backed it up with a little data.
“Amazon’s internal data shows that shopper conversions increase by an average of 25% when purchased on Prime,” the blog said in a statement direct to would-be third-party sellers. “This data point measures the average increase in shoppers who placed an order over the same time period when purchasing with Prime was an available purchase option versus when it was not. ”
on the very same day, BigCommerce announced Amazon has introduced the “Buy with Prime” feature to a number of retailers, saying it is a better way to reach new “enthusiastic” shoppers.
“This integration is the first of its kind and is a game-changer for omnichannel merchants and partners to grow.” Sharon Geevice president of revenue growth and general manager of omnichannel at BigCommerce, said of the new feature:
As it stands, about 60% of Amazon’s sales come from third-party sellers already using its platform, and more brands, including this week’s Rent the Runway, are entering the e-commerce giant’s gigantic marketplace. That number should increase as you set up your digital shop.
But wait, there’s Walmart
The king of big box retailers never loses and this week took another step forward with its own digital transformation through another but similar outreach to sellers and retailers in need.
To demonstrate its expanded digital prowess and prowess, Walmart announced that its Commerce Technologies and GoLocal divisions have partnered with Salesforce to offer retailers using cloud-based software curbside pickup, local delivery, and order fulfillment. announced that it will offer a mentoring service.
Certain new initiatives are often said to “level the playing field” between large and small businesses, but in the case of Walmart’s new take on sellers, the Arkansas-based chain has become an Amazon It offers exactly the same ‘store’ as it does. Assist technology is used to fulfill more than 830 million orders at Walmart’s 4,700 stores nationwide.
“Through this partnership, retailers will be able to leverage the same innovative and scalable technology that powers the Walmart pickup and delivery experience,” said Anshu Bhardwaj, senior vice president of technology strategy and merchandising at Walmart Global Technology. said in the announcement.
Again, similar to Amazon’s Buy with Prime expansion, Bhardwaj said the effort will allow smaller players to leverage Walmart’s scale and influence to grow their own businesses and ” We aim to help you “provide the personalized and convenient experience that people expect.”
So what are you going to do?
Such a battle bodes well for smaller retailers, as retail’s two biggest players ramp up competition to add third-party sellers (and SKUs) to their respective platforms. I can’t help but think that it will be. At the very least, it should give brands more incentive to check even if he doesn’t use one or both platforms to sell his products.
In between are consumers who will reap some benefits not only as a result of competition, but also from the expansion of products and delivery options that will emerge, as well as the inevitable future innovation that will emerge.
“Shoppers continue to expect brands to deliver highly connected, frictionless experiences across physical and digital touchpoints,” said vice president and general manager of retail at Salesforce. Rob Garf noted that one-fifth of online orders are already being picked up in stores during the busy holiday shopping season weekends.
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