Amazon Opens Up Prime Delivery Service To Other Retailers

Amazon will let other online merchants piggyback on its Prime service to deliver goods quickly to their customers. From a report: The company on Thursday launched a new service, Buy with Prime, that lets third-party merchants use Amazon's vast shipping and logistics network to fulfill orders on their own sites, while also appealing to Amazon's 200 million-plus Prime customers. These web sites will be able to put the Prime badge on their websites next to items that are eligible for free two-day or next-day delivery. Prime members will use the payment and shipping information stored on their Amazon account to place an order. Buy with Prime won't be free for sellers, and pricing will vary depending on payment processing, fulfillment, storage and other fees. To start, the service will only be available by invitation to sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA. With that service, merchants pay to have their inventory stored in Amazon's warehouses and to make use of the company's supply chain and shipping operations. Eventually, it will be extended to other merchants, including those not selling on Amazon.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[aitikin]

This is the free market, and this is actually positive for competition. Prime was, until now, locking people into the Amazon infrastructure. If you had a Prime subscription, you basically had an incentive to buy from Amazon all the time except in extreme cases where the retailer was near enough to beat them on delivery timings AND the shipping was free.

Bullshit. This is still locking people into the Amazon infrastructure. This is only available to organizations already working with Amazon's FBA, and only available through their payment system. How on earth does this improve things for the typical consumer or business? You now have the choice of ordering through Amazon's marketplace or through the business's website directly? That's not a choice really when the product is the same, with the same service, the same shipping, and the same BS.

Maybe, at so

Just ahead of earnings

[Matt321]

Cant wait to see the reduction in sales because people can leave their homes again. Disclaimer: I'm in a short position on AMZN.

Re:

[usedtobestine]

I suspect they're doing this to bolster their shipping operations. I know that I'm not seeing as many Amazon delivery vans as I used to.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

> Cant wait to see the reduction in sales because people can leave their homes again.

Just because you CAN leave your home and not wear a mask doesn't mean you should. The COVID virus is real AND it's killing! REEE!

Stay inside people. Don't be a sheep to your government. Be a free thinker and stay inside.

--
We defeated a fascist. But we still have to defeat fascism.

But..

[bumblebees]

It was always possible as merchant to send directly from fba storage to customer was it not? Atleast here in europe.

Re:But..

[Kokuyo]

If by FBA you mean fulfilled by Amazon then yes.
However that necessitated sending your products to Amazon in the first place and I'm sure that wasn't free. As far as I understand the article, you can now use Amazon like you would use UPS, FedEx or DHL.

Good!

[Petersko]

"you can now use Amazon like you would use UPS, FedEx or DHL."

And don't minimize the value of that. UPS, FedEx and DHL can only aspire to the ability of Amazon to provide in the same commercial space.

I'll simply not make a purchase if it has to come by one of those.

Re:

[CastrTroy]

To start, the service will only be available by invitation to sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon,

Yes, this is the part that confused me. I'm in Canada, and I've been using Amazon Prime for a while, and it has always been available on items that are fulfilled by Amazon. Maybe things are different in the US, but in Canada, about half the things I buy on Amazon aren't sold by Amazon, but normally third party resellers. I almost never buy something that's not shipped by Amazon. I've had a few bad experienc

Re: But..

[e3m4n]

Its my understanding that this goes way beyond marketplace vendors. Now you can run your own website and use prime delivery as an option. Whether it must be housed in an amazon warehouse remains to be seen. Maybe you just have to drop the goods off at a warehouse daily (assuming its nearby).

merchants pay to have their stock stored with AMZN

[RotateLeftByte]

Explains it all. AMZN will then know what those other retailers are selling and move in on their business.
Don't say that you have not been warned. Those who dance with the devil will get burned sooner rather than later.

Re: merchants pay to have their stock stored with

[e3m4n]

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I ask that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it.

Re:

[turp182]

Logistics will have to be split from product sales/production for anti-trust reasons.

I'm surprised FBA hasn't already forced this (not even mentioning the Amazon Basics product lines).

The move by Amazon is a logical extension of their strategy and what they are good at.

Regulatory change delay is the biggest factor.

It's incredible how fast Amazon has become such a huge force in logistics. Proves out how lazy or slow the competition is. Same applies to SpaceX except to... space.

Good

[cascadingstylesheet]

Best of the lot, when it comes to delivery services.

Re:

[splutty]

You must not be living in the US :)

"Your delivery will arrive tomorrow, sometime, maybe, or probably the day after."

Re:

[SpzToid]

Not only that, while US return shipping is free for Prime members, that's not what I discovered to be true in one EU country, (where Prime costs €3/monthly). I bought something that came from China, although that wasn't known to me soooo clearly at the moment of purchase. I didn't mind waiting until the expected delivery date, approximately 3 weeks later (for free shipping). It arrived so late, it was eligible for a money-back return, but it would have cost me nearly as much as the cost of the item to

Re:

[psergiu]

"Prime Next-day" is now actually 2+ days.
Week-long delays in shipping the Prime items.
Prime orders canceled with no reason with the only option being a refund then you have to re-buy the item at a higher price.
"Free returns with Amazon Prime" only if you take the items in the original packaging to certain retail stores or UPS Stores (not UPS drop-off points), else you have to pay for the "free return".
Counterfeits sent in in place of brand items ordered, even for the cheapest stuff.
Return form changed - you

What is the fascination?

[RitchCraft]

Why does it seem that people are obsessed with getting deliveries next or second day? Is this reality or hype created by Amazon? I certainly don't mind waiting up to a week to receive an on-line order.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

It avoid trips to the store.

People often need things soon but not today and not in a week. And sometimes they can shop at 10pm but not 10am.

It ought to be more time and energy efficient, especially for rural folks.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

What's funny is - Amazon now offers incentives if you cut down on the number of trips their vans need to make to your house! If I pick the "deliver on your Prime day" option (which is Friday in my case), I get a $1 credit I can use against renting a movie or whatever from Prime Video.

re: next or 2nd day deliveries

[King_TJ]

For me, the ability to get an order in a day or two is often the only reason I'd buy online rather than go to a retail store.

I prefer retail shopping so I can make sure I'm actually getting the item I want (can examine it before I pay for it), but also for the instant gratification. When I realize I need an item, it's usually because it's on my mind at that moment in time and I probably have the time to do something with it.

When a delivery is going to take a week or more to arrive, it becomes a situation wh

Predictable

[erp_consultant]

For quite a while now Amazon has been going after FedEx and UPS. They used to use them exclusively for deliveries. Now they have their own planes and trucks. Not satisfied with merely squeezing out the small Mom and Pop stores they now want to squeeze out the delivery middlemen. All part of the world domination plan. Yawn...

It's about time

[nospam007]

Supermarkets have been doing this for decades.