Amazon is extending Prime shipping benefits to members for merchants using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), allowing Prime members to buy directly from third-party merchants’ online stores with free shipping and other Prime perks, said the company Thursday. Buy with Prime will initially be available by invitation only for FBA merchants and will roll out over 2022, including to merchants not selling on Amazon or using FBA, it said. Participating merchants’ websites will show the Prime logo and delivery promise on eligible products in their stores, indicating the item is available for free delivery, “as fast as next day,” with free returns, shipping and delivery notifications; Prime members will use the payment and shipping information stored in their Amazon account. For merchants already using FBA, Buy with Prime can be added to their online store “within minutes because their inventory is already stored in Amazon fulfillment centers,” Amazon said. Merchants signing up for Buy with Prime, will link their Amazon Seller Central account, use Multi-Channel Fulfillment to offer one pool of inventory for multiple channels, and link an Amazon Pay account to offer a “seamless checkout experience” for Prime members, it said. They can add Buy with Prime to one or more products by installing a JavaScript widget in their online store, Amazon said. Buy with Prime merchants will receive shopper order information, including email addresses for customer orders, which they can use to provide customer service and build direct relationships with shoppers, it said. Pricing for merchants is based on a service fee, a payment processing fee, and fulfillment and storage fees calculated per unit, Amazon said. Merchants can expand their selection or cancel at any time with no long-term contract required, it said. Separately, Amazon will begin assessing a 5% FBA fulfillment fee surcharge on April 28 to cover fuel and inflation costs, the company said.

Inflationary pressures likely benefited Amazon in Q1, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday, previewing Amazon’s April 28 earnings report. Wedbush expects revenue and operating income at the high-end of Amazon’s guidance, at $120 billion and $6 billion. Pachter noted Amazon recently announced a 5% surcharge for Fulfillment by Amazon sellers, taking effect this month to cover higher fuel and inflation expenses, and said the same pressures drove higher product prices for most categories, “especially groceries.” He estimated a 5% product price increase at Amazon in Q1. Some 78% of respondents to a March Wedbush survey said they spent more on Amazon during the COVID-19 pandemic than they typically would have; 74% reported doing so in September and March 2021 and 80% in August 2020. Next up was Walmart, with 39% of respondents currently spending at elevated levels, he said. Findings supported the Wedbush thesis that the shift to online spending throughout the pandemic has changed consumers’ shopping habits “more permanently," with Amazon "appearing to be the biggest recipient of dollars shifting online, by a wide margin.”

An overwhelming majority of U.S. consumers are willing to put up with late deliveries in exchange for making fulfillment of goods more “sustainable,” a Blue Yonder survey found. The digital supply chain company canvassed 1,000 U.S. adults March 21-22, finding nearly half (44%) said their interest in shopping sustainably increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said Tuesday. The survey found consumers “are willing to do their part by recycling, spending more on sustainable packaging or even setting minimum spending requirements on deliveries,” said Blue Yonder. Other findings: (1) More than eight in 10 consumers said they recycle boxes and bags from in-store and online shopping at least half the time; (2) nearly two-thirds are willing to spend more on sustainable packaging, with 44% willing to spend up to 5% more; and (3) more than half (52%) of consumers said social media influenced them to shop sustainably more often, including 7% who said they were moderately to significantly influenced.

Online returns cost retailers an average 21% of order value at a time when e-commerce return rates are at historical highs, said a Thursday Pitney Bowes report. Return rates in 2021 were 20.8% vs. 18.1% in 2020, said the mailing equipment company. Retailers and consumers “struggle with returns because each sees the other as making the process more difficult,” said Vijay Ramachandran, Pitney Bowes vice president-market strategy for global ecommerce. Three-quarters of respondents to a February BOXpoll survey said their recent returns experiences were “inconvenient.” Some 70% of retailers are trying to lower return costs by addressing transportation or processing costs, but that’s complicated by shared accountability for returns strategies, said the company.

Retail analytics firm Information Resources Inc. (IRI) is partnering with Profitero, an e-commerce intelligence platform, on technology enabling clients to “measure and optimize” consumer products’ “digital shelf presence based on actual item-level sales,” said the companies Wednesday. “By isolating the digital causal factors influencing e-commerce market share performance,” including in-stock availability, product content, search position, pricing and reviews, the tech “can help brands make better decisions, invest more efficiently and capitalize on growth opportunities faster,” they said. IRI announced an agreement last week to combine with NPD to form a technology, analytics and data provider on “retail purchasing and consumption trends” (see 2204070039).

Consumers spent $83.1 billion online in March, a 7% year-on-year increase from stimulus-fueled spending in March 2021, and up from $67 billion in February, Adobe reported Tuesday. Fourteen of the 18 categories tracked by Adobe’s Digital Price Index (DPI) had price increases, but electronics prices dropped 4.2% year on year and nearly 1% from February. Consumers paid $2.8 billion more for the same amount of goods in March, when online prices rose 3.6% year on year and 0.3% month to month, Adobe said. Online inflation occurred in 22 consecutive months, beginning in June 2020 when prices rose 0.6% year-over-year, it said. Out-of-stock messages bumped to 3.1 billion in March from 2.8 billion in February, which had three fewer days. Ongoing demand indicates shoppers are “increasingly comfortable with product substitution,” Adobe said. The Department of Labor said Tuesday the consumer price index rose 8.5% year on year.

Cross-border e-commerce will be 38% of all online transactions globally by value in 2023, when it exceeds $2 trillion for the first time, reported Juniper Research Monday. The more than 13% growth in a single year to $2.1 trillion in 2023 reflects the increasing success of marketplaces that offer goods across borders, plus the “rising viability” of cross-border sales as an e-commerce model, said Juniper. Physical goods will generate more than 97% of the cross-border e-commerce spend in 2023, it said.

Walmart launched a limited-time Marketplace promotion Monday giving sellers that join by May 31, and begin selling on Walmart.com by June 30, a 50% discount on commission rates for the first 90 days. Walmart also extended an incentive for Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS); approved sellers that enroll, complete and inbound one item to the fulfillment center by June 30 will earn 90 days of free storage and a 10% discount on fulfillment for the first 10,000 units, it said. The company touted WFS’ “simple fee structure” and returns policy; customers have access to Walmart Customer Care, or they can return an item to a Walmart store. WFS items arrive in a Walmart box and are categorized as “fulfilled by Walmart” to help sellers build credibility with customers, it said.

FedEx will partner with Elroy Air to test autonomous drone “middle-mile” cargo delivery beginning in 2023, said the companies Wednesday. Elroy describes itself as building the first “end-to-end autonomous vertical take-off and landing aerial cargo system.” The program’s main thrust will be moving shipments between “sortation locations,” said FedEx. “The exponential growth of e-commerce has accelerated the demand for reliable, efficient transportation and logistics solutions throughout all stages of the supply chain.”

BJ’s Wholesale Club customers can shop for on-demand grocery deliveries from 226 BJ’s locations in 17 states using the DoorDash app in a “strategic partnership” announced Monday. BJ’s members can also link their wholesale club cards to DoorDash to qualify for lower, member-only pricing, they said. DoorDash will offer BJ’s customers 30% off their orders of more than $100 Tuesday through April 12.