Buy with Prime can take the headache out of fulfillment

Complicated inventory maintenance, unreliable and costly freight shipping, missed deliveries, and returns processing — they’re the problems that keep ecommerce business owners awake at night.

But business leaders can’t simply ignore these challenges. Today’s online shoppers expect fast, free shipping and easy returns. Businesses that don’t offer these features risk being outrun by competitors. According to Baymard Institute, 48% of shoppers abandon their carts because of additional shipping fees, and 22% of shoppers abandon carts because delivery was too slow¹.

Buy with Prime not only simplifies fulfillment and logistics for merchants, but also helps them delight customers with a secure and familiar shopping experience that they have come to expect.

How does Buy with Prime simplify fulfillment?

Amazon handles the fulfillment and logistics for Buy with Prime orders made on merchants’ sites, including inventory storage, packing, shipping, delivery, and returns. For customers, that means a seamless way to enjoy the Prime shopping experience beyond Amazon.com, including 1-2 shipping, transparent estimated delivery times, and free returns (for eligible orders). For businesses, this can result in less fulfillment headaches, fewer abandoned carts, more returning customers, and accelerated business growth.

Businesses using Amazon to manage their order fulfillment know that a system that is connected, reliable and cost-effective can help streamline backend logistics. Amazon offers two different order fulfillment services for merchants: 
 

•  Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which handles fulfillment for orders placed on Amazon.com.
•  Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF), which handles fulfillment for orders placed on off-Amazon sales channels, including ecommerce sites. 

Buy with Prime - which leverages MCF - allows merchants to take advantage of Amazon’s world-class fulfillment network to fulfill orders from their own sites. With automatic inventory placement, Amazon’s fulfillment centers can store products closer to customers to keep shipping costs low and help scale to meet seasonal surges.

With Buy with Prime, packages are delivered every day of the week and are easily trackable through the Buy with Prime merchant console. On top of that, the Buy with Prime checkout button is programmed to provide estimated delivery information for customers before they place an order, potentially enticing them to complete the purchase.

Buy with Prime helps ecommerce businesses streamline the fulfillment process by leveraging Amazon’s operational expertise, fast shipping speeds, and global fulfillment networks.

How are Buy with Prime orders fulfilled?

Buy with Prime orders placed on merchants’ sites are fulfilled using the MCF service, giving Prime members the trustworthy Prime shipping experience they’ve come to expect. MCF picks, packs, and ships Buy with Prime orders by using the inventory that the merchant keeps in an Amazon's network of fulfillment centers.

During the Buy with Prime onboarding process, merchants activate MCF and sync their Seller Central accounts to the Buy with Prime merchant console. After setup is complete, orders placed using Buy with Prime are automatically fulfilled by Amazon and are trackable in the merchant console.

Existing Amazon sellers using FBA can easily add Buy with Prime and use their FBA inventory for orders on their site. By using Amazon’s fulfillment services to fulfill both their Amazon.com and Buy with Prime orders, merchants benefit by having a single pool of inventory that they can use for many of their online orders.

Merchants currently using FBA will find Buy with Prime fulfillment familiar, but slightly different. Buy with Prime orders can only be shipped to customers in the US, but merchants with global operations can continue to use their existing ordering processes to ship globally. Merchants can continue to use Seller Central to monitor sales, cancellations, and pay fees for non-Buy with Prime orders.

How does Buy with Prime accelerate growth?

Merchants that use Amazon fulfillment services on their own site benefit from streamlining their fulfillment processes so they can focus on growing their business. Here’s how:

1. By scaling operations — There’s no need to keep separate inventories. Instead, merchants can use the same inventory to fulfill both Amazon.com orders and their site’s Buy with Prime orders.
2. By automating order tracking — Buy with Prime purchases trigger a series of email notifications, including order confirmation, shipment status and order delivery.
3. By delighting customers — Fast and free shipping, plus easy and free returns, can help entice shoppers into completing their purchases and even returning to the store for more.

How can you get started?

Existing Amazon fulfillment centers’ sellers can start leveraging these fulfillment benefits using Buy with Prime within minutes. Learn more about Buy with Prime and fulfillment.

If you're ready to add Buy with Prime to your ecommerce site, learn about the requirements to get started and sign up. 
 

¹ Baymard Institute’s “48 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2022”