Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will let other online merchants piggyback on its Prime service to deliver goods quickly to their customers.
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 accounts 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.
Amazon has long set its sights on being the fastest in the online delivery race. For years, the company has plowed profits back into physical expansion, growing its fulfillment centers and shipping partnerships across the country in order to offer two- and same-day delivery in more markets.
It has amassed a hefty fleet of its own delivery drivers, trucks and planes to speed packages to customers’ doorsteps.
AMZN shares climbed $41.01, or 1.3%, in the first hour on Thursday, to $3,120.97.
