Should I Add a Buy with Prime Button to My Shopify Site?

One of the best new things about being a Shopify partner is the ability to support Amazon Prime sales from within Shopify’s D2C ecosystem. Adding a Buy with Prime button on your product pages (and elsewhere) has a number of clear advantages, including the creation of whole new revenue streams and audiences.

It’s not without some drawbacks, though, minor as they are (though they can be somewhat significant, depending on your store’s unique needs). If you’re thinking of adding a Prime button on Shopify, here’s what you should know.

What Does a Buy with Prime Button Do?

In August 2023, Amazon launched the Buy with Prime app in the Shopify App Store. It’s essentially a portal for Prime members, enabling you to sell to Amazon Prime audiences right where they shop.

The Buy with Prime button directly links customers to their Amazon Prime account, allowing them to tap into their membership perks, get free shipping, and more, all without going outside your brand ecosystem. Buy with Prime also speeds up the checkout process and credits the purchase to your Prime seller account.

A Buy with Prime button is also highly customizable. It automatically adapts to your template by default and positions itself below your ‘Add to Cart’ button. You can then modify the Buy with Prime button to taste (minding Amazon’s brand guidelines), and you’re free to place it for optimal performance.

Simultaneously Promote Your Amazon and Shopify Presence

Buy with Prime goes beyond just synchronizing your Amazon and Shopify accounts, which the Marketplace Connect app already made possible. Buy with Prime essentially functions as its very own point of sale, giving customers a choice that benefits you either way.

Adding a Buy with Prime button on your Shopify site primarily accomplishes two things:

1. Promotes another revenue stream through your main seller ecosystem
2. Makes your storefront more attractive to Amazon’s most loyal users

Keep in mind that it’s tough to compete directly with Amazon Prime’s free shipping, easy returns, and other advantages, which have attracted over 200 million Amazon Prime members.

Why Fight It?

It’s far better to accommodate Amazon Prime users as they are rather than trying to convert them. You’ll accomplish the next best thing (and often with a lot less work) using a strategic network of Buy with Prime buttons.

As Prime members increasingly visit your Shopify store, you can expect higher traffic right where it will do you the most good. Customers will appreciate the choice, and it bolsters your stake in a sales channel that traditionally drew users normally outside the seller’s own ecosystem.

Note that Buy with Prime does drive some of your site traffic to Amazon. However, Buy with Prime still gives customers a quick and easy way to return to your store, strengthening brand relationships with shoppers you might never have otherwise connected with.

Benefits for Everyone

Keep in mind that Amazon generally doesn’t try to siphon traffic from their sellers’ homepages, and they even encourage users to have one. The Amazon brand registry, for instance, requires a legitimate website. Both platforms benefit from Buy with Prime integration on Shopify, and thus, so do merchants and their customers.

For these reasons and more, the Buy with Prime button is yet another example of how Amazon and Shopify have repeatedly found themselves more in alignment than at cross purposes. We’ll show you the most effective way to get started. But first, here’s a rundown of the pros and cons of adding a Prime button to Shopify.

Adding a Prime Button on Shopify: The Pros and Cons

With the Amazon Buy with Prime app, sellers can leverage Amazon’s gigantic market reach without sacrificing the independence and control of running their core operations from Shopify. It’s also a better alternative to full traffic migration, which some sellers have reason to do even without multi-sales-channel aspirations.

So, is adding a Buy with Prime button to your Shopify site the right move for you?

Buy with Prime Cons

We’ll start with the cons so you can rule out any deal-breakers first:

• Draws traffic away from your site and onto Amazon
• Subjects your company to Amazon service terms, brand guidelines, and fees you might not have otherwise had
• Reduces profits on Amazon transactions
• Shaves off a portion of your Shopify sales, which probably have better margins

In the latter case, remember that you’ll almost certainly also generate higher sales overall. Some of your Buy with Prime sales wouldn’t have been made at all, though others may have gone through Shop Pay if it was the customers’ only option.

You’ll never know, but it’s usually a sum-total gain. It’s up to you to make the call after closely examining sales channel performance and attribution data. But we think you’ll agree that there are far more benefits than drawbacks.

Buy with Prime Pros

Adding a Prime button on Shopify provides you and your buyers with a multitude of benefits:

• Integration with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and multichannel fulfillment (MCF) services
• Reduced shipping and storage costs
• Increased inventory
• Greater omnichannel presence
• Less point of sale friction
• Increased traffic and cross-promotional branding
• A larger customer base that includes strict Amazon loyalists
• Free shipping, automatic ETAs, and other Prime membership perks
• Automatically synced settings, promotions, and customer data
• Easy management of Prime services from the Shopify admin panel
• Support for multichannel sales—if one account goes down, you’ll still stay afloat
• Combined Amazon and Shopify analytics
• Increased attribution data and other marketing insights

These latter points are critical for those looking to gain multichannel mastery! It means brands can track Buy with Prime buyers and use the data for future marketing efforts.

This is a huge difference from selling directly on Amazon because sales made via the Buy with Prime button stay in your wheelhouse. You can then develop more sophisticated marketing and sales strategies that increase relevance across the buyer’s journey, thanks to Amazon’s smooth, efficient integration with Klaviyo (more on this next).

Alternate Strategies for the Buy with Prime Button

Buy with Prime also supports unique marketing strategies, and their Buy with Prime badge is compatible with a variety of channels and media. Amazon also streamlines the process of creating social media ads and other common marketing activities.

Driving instant Buy with Prime transactions is the main goal, but not the only one. Our eCommerce design experts have also successfully applied Prime buttons in the following ways:

• Placement on site billboards or banners for instantly grabbing Prime members’ attention
• Inclusion in site menus and footers to reinforce awareness of your brand’s new multichannel support
• Adding a Prime button on Shopify’s hero image—an eye-catching above-the-fold graphic just below your Shopify navigation bar
• Incorporating Buy with Prime sales data into new email marketing strategies proven to increase conversion

As regular readers know, we’re continually optimizing our clients’ Klaviyo email strategies. A well-executed email funnel or newsletter series can achieve greater returns than most other marketing efforts because you’re communicating directly with warm leads and past customers.

If you choose the Buy with Prime strategy, be sure to also use the Klaviyo for Buy with Prime app. It automatically syncs Buy with Prime orders and customer data to your Klaviyo account, allowing for custom-targeted outreach.

Optimize Your Multichannel Sales Environment with Future Holidays

Fully curated seller environments are almost always preferable to managing multiple sales channels independently. In many ways, running Amazon and Shopify accounts can feel like juggling. So, it’s important to streamline your checkout process and stay totally focused on managing your business. Like fully custom web design and brand strategies, there are usually several ways to achieve your company’s aims.

That’s especially true if you have the support of a high-bandwidth eCommerce branding agency backed by extensive design experience—driven by measurable results. Future Holidays leverages each seller tool and design feature for its fullest value. If you’re struggling to manage an Amazon sales channel alongside your primary Shopify site, our strongest recommendation is to take the highest number of web development tasks off your plate.

Having been in the custom branding and digital design fields for decades, we have the razor-sharp insights our clients need to steer their eCommerce ships confidently. It’s a world of difference over floating a constant work in progress.

The Buy with Prime button is a valuable addition to your Shopify presence. Contact us, and let our web dev and branding experts know how we can amplify your entrepreneurial ambitions.