Dive Brief:
- Amazon is starting to allow sellers to qualify for two-day shipping under Amazon Prime even if they don’t warehouse with the e-commerce giant.
- Amazon Prime costs $99 per year, and offers members photo storage and streaming video and music services in addition to two-day shipping on thousands of items.
- Prime members spend two to four times more on Amazon every as nonmembers, and there are an estimated 30 million members worldwide.
Dive Insight:
In a change to its longstanding policy, Amazon is allowing select sellers that don’t warehouse with Fulfillment by Amazon to qualify fo free two-day shipping under Amazon Prime. The move will open more goods to Prime members, who pay $99 per year for two-day shipping on thousands of items, access Amazon’s streaming video and music services, and more.
With Amazon promoting the service aggressively, Prime membership grew 53% last year. If Amazon’s move is successful, it will be able to offer more products with free two-day shipping without adding warehousing space, including higher-priced or one-of-a-kind merchandise that marketers don’t want to house in Amazon's more than 100 facilities worldwide.