Amazon recently launched the Buy with Prime feature for third-party sites in the United States. The service will be available from January 31. However, more than the product, what’s interesting is the timing of the launch. A week before Shopify introduced a new service for enterprise retailers called “Commerce Components by Shopify”.
The recent launch by both tech giants has added to their ongoing rivalry. Both products target sellers looking to expand their online presence by providing them with a wide range of tools to manage their websites. In this article, we are going to understand the difference and similarities between Amazon’s Buy with Prime and Commerce Components by Shopify.
We’ll continue innovating and investing in new features, such as Reviews from Amazon, to help merchants of all sizes succeed and give Prime members the shopping benefits they love, whether it’s on Amazon or beyond.
Peter Larsen, vice president, Buy with Prime, Amazon
Amazon’s Buy with Prime
The Buy with Prime program will be available for use by U.S.-based merchants, announced Amazon. The program offers several benefits including free shipping, free returns and easy checkout among others on their own apps. Prime members can use their Amazon account to check out third-party sites and get two-day or free delivery.
The service launched in April 2022 was earlier available on an invite-only basis to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and other select merchants. Amazon claimed that participating merchants saw an average of 25 increase in shopper conversion rates versus those without the option during a particular time period.
“We’ve been working closely with merchants since the launch of Buy with Prime and have been thrilled to hear the results it’s helped drive for them so far. We’ll continue innovating and investing in new features, such as Reviews from Amazon, to help merchants of all sizes succeed and give Prime members the shopping benefits they love, whether it’s on Amazon or beyond,” said Peter Larsen, vice president of Buy with Prime at Amazon, in a statement.
In an official blog, the company stated: “We’ve seen some merchants, like Trophy Skin, report shopper conversion of more than 30 percent since adding Buy with Prime to their online store. Additionally, merchants such as Wyze have told us they are seeing a 25 percent higher conversion rate and have added Buy with Prime to all eligible products in their catalog. Hydralyte told us that after adding Buy with Prime, they have seen a 14 percent increase in conversion”.
What Does Buy with Prime Offer?
Buy with Prime merchants will be able to display reviews and customer ratings on their online store at no extra cost. After a buyer drops a review on Amazon.com, it will later be displayed on the site wherever Buy with Prime is enabled. This feature boosts shopper conversion by helping them make more informed decisions while purchasing, said Mr. Larsen. However, sellers won’t be able to remove negative reviews that show up on their store.
Amazon did not reveal the fee it will charge merchants to use its Buy with Prime feature. The company said that the pricing structure incorporates storage fees and fulfillment, which might vary depending on the sellers’ inventory. Haircare brand Sustainable Glam plans to offer to Buy with Prime to its customers. Meanwhile, BigCommerce also announced to launch of the feature in its first quarter. Merchants on its platform will be able to add it without any need for coding.
Amazon decided to widely launch Buy with Prime after slow sales growth and economic uncertainty prompted the company to take several measures to manage its expenses. Amazon also recently executed its largest round of layoffs. The company is now under pressure to discover new revenue streams after the struggle of its cloud computing and retail businesses during the pandemic. Amazon has also come under scrutiny from lawmakers for its unethical business practices including the alleged misuse of data from third-party sellers.
Commerce Components by Shopify
Commerce Components by Shopify is meant to boost enterprise retail. With the service, the world’s biggest retailers can make use of Shopify’s infrastructure to build a commerce experience on the web. Talking about the same, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said in a statement, “We’ve always approached innovation at Shopify by anticipating what retailers need, then providing those solutions. Commerce Components by Shopify opens our infrastructure so enterprise retailers don’t have to waste time, engineering power, and money building critical foundations Shopify has already perfected, and instead frees them up to customize, differentiate, and scale”.
Commerce Components has open-source tools and libraries which can be used to create e-commerce experiences. These tools are not only modular but also flexible helping developers to cutomise e-commerce solutions as per specific requirements of their businesses. Commerce Components has features such as customizable checkout flows, support for multiple payment gateways and integration with various tax calculation and shipping services.
The main motive of Commerce Components by Shopify is to ease the job of developers in building and maintaining e-commerce websites and apps. It comes with a set of well-tested and reusable components that developers can seamlessly integrate into any web project.
What is Enterprise Retail?
For those unversed, let’s first talk about enterprise retail. It is a practice of selling products to businesses instead of individual consumers. Specialised products and services used in business operations are sold in enterprise retail. For example- office equipment, industrial machinery and software. Enterprise retail targets a particular market segment or industry and provides custom services or solutions to meet their requirements.
The ever-changing technology landscape and increasing expectations of customers are some of the biggest challenges faced by enterprise retailers. Shopify aims to help them achieve real-time innovation. Commerce Components by Shopify provides non-negotiable elements under one suite, thus increasing the work pace.
Flexible APIs
It also offers flexible Application Programming Interfaces (API)s to let enterprise retailers build dynamic customer experiences with preferred back-office services. The flexible APIs work without rate limits and help enterprise retailers to integrate existing services with modular components. This allows retailers to build stronger customer relations through any device.
Retailers have the liberty to choose modular components according to their business needs. They can leave the component which is not needed. With CCS, developers get access to the front-end framework to build new programs freely. CCS also has a new back-office management team that works exclusively for enterprise retailers.
Shopify compared CCS with its checkout experience, which claims 72 percent more conversion than the conventional checkout system. On mobile devices, the rate is 91 percent said Shopify. The Canadian e-commerce giant welcomed American brand Mattel as its first client to avail of the benefits of Commerce Components.
