After Shopify warned its merchant partners to ditch ‘Buy With Prime’ service, Amazon has come up with another tactic to woo merchants based on Shopify and other rival platforms with a free shipping software, Veeqo. On Thursday, Amazon.com Inc. ended monthly fees on Veeqo and offered it to merchants on Shopify, eBay and Etsy.
The merchants can use this free software to manage orders with much ease. Veeqo was recently acquired by Amazon. This will help Amazon reduce shipping costs and boost order delivery speed.
We’re focused on supporting sellers as they work to build and grow their business.
Benjamin Hartman, vice president, Amazon North America Selling Partner Services
Veeqo’s Acquisition
Talking about Veeqo‘s acquisition, D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte said as quoted by euronews.com: “The acquisition should improve Amazon’s ability to compete against Shopify”.
Cana-based Shopify allows merchants set up their online stores and sell products across the internet. However, Amazon has its “primary focus” on selling through its own marketplace, added the analyst.
Supporting Sellers
At the time of acquisition, Amazon had promised something similar to Shopify’s business objective. “We’re focused on supporting sellers as they work to build and grow their business,” Benjamin Hartman, vice president of Amazon North America Selling Partner Services, said as quoted by pymnts.com.
“The tools we’re announcing today are a direct result of seller feedback and target every step of their Amazon sales funnel, from new customer acquisition to increased lifetime value. We’re committed to continuing to develop tools and features that deliver actionable insights for sellers,” Hartman added.
Buy with Prime Controversy
In April, Amazon had launched “Buy with Prime” service to help merchants to deliver orders fast on their direct-to-consumer websites. Shopify wasn’t much pleased with Amazon’s offering. It quickly issued a warning against sellers using Amazon’s “Buy With Prime” button on their storefront.
Amazon’s Buy With Prime allows merchants to add the Prime logo on their sites and offer Amazon’s speedy delivery options. Members of Amazon’s Prime loyalty club can check out via their Amazon accounts. It competes with Shop Pay, rival Shopify’s instant checkout and payment service. Collaborating with Facebook and Google last year, Shopify is looking to expand Shop Pay beyond its own platform.
Research firm Marketplace Pulse reported that the Canandian e-commerce platform alleges that Amazon’s one-click checkout service violates the terms of service of Shopify. Shopify raised security concerns, though Amazon refuted all its claims saying: “We protect information collected via Buy with Prime, including shopper data, in accordance with Amazon’s high security standards. We use this information to provide and improve Buy with Prime for merchants and shoppers.”
“We use Amazon Pay to process payments for Buy with Prime orders. Amazon Pay is backed by the fraud protection technology used on Amazon.com. Merchants have complete control over the prices customers are charged,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.
Shopify, on the other hand, didn’t respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
‘Not Against Shopify’
According to Veeqo’s founder Matt Warren, the software acquision by Amazon is not aimed against Shopify or other such platforms. “Amazon takes a very long-term view that anything that helps sellers eventually will be good for Amazon,” he said.
For now, Amazon has made Veeqo free for merchants based in the United States and the United Kingdom.
