What’s Up

Holiday spending fell short of predictions from the National Retail Foundation and experts are warning businesses of a looming recession. In response, brands, marketers, and business leaders all seem to be scrambling, searching for the the best ways to prepare for tough financial times. E-commerce retailers and brands are advised to work toward optimization and to create seamless customer experiences. Amazon’s Buy with Prime button, launched in April 2022, is an example of one way direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are incorporating optimization.

The Buy with Prime feature allows DTC businesses to add Prime shopping capabilities to their websites and lets DTC customers choose a Prime checkout experience without leaving the DTC brand’s site. Shoppers viewing products on a DTC site featuring Buy with Prime see an Amazon logo and a Prime checkout option, listed with existing checkout choices. Once the Buy with Prime button is clicked, the shopper logs into their Amazon account and their preferences and information automatically populate without leaving the site.

What It Means

E-commerce continues to expand and change — immersive experiences and social media-like feeds are making it clear that consumers want a seamless, convenient, and customized shopping interaction. The option to integrate an established and trusted service like Prime shopping helps brands that may not have the same extensive infrastructure to guarantee shipping and delivery details.

According to XDelivery’s The State of Shipping Report 2022, 50% of online shoppers begin their shopping journey on Amazon and 45% begin on Google. Just over a quarter of shoppers (26%) start shopping on a brand’s/retailer’s website. Of those shoppers, 96% say they always or sometimes leave the site to check to see if the same product is available on Amazon. Further, 65% of those shoppers say they check Amazon to see if the shipping is cheaper or faster.

Amazon Prime has set the tone for consumer e-commerce expectations and this offering underscores the need for seamless, trustworthy customer experience across retailers. Big brands should create more tools that allow smaller players to leverage the authority or expertise of an industry leader. Brands across categories can make use of tools meant to facilitate optimization. Big names should continue innovating around how to make the most practical and profitable use of consumer preferences and their significant infrastructure to make reliable delivery and seamless shopping experiences more accessible.