Amazon is heading towards the peak Christmas season on a roll, says the home delivery expert ParcelHero. ParcelHero has analysed Amazon’s latest financial results and says they show this October’s Prime Day event was its largest two-day pre-holiday event ever.
Crucially, Amazon is also releasing its long-demanded Buy with Prime Shopify app in time for Christmas. This will hugely simplify the e-commerce giant’s Shopify integration for sellers, says ParcelHero.
ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘Amazon’s third-quarter results were impressive enough, but the fine print in its latest financial statement shows that the company is on track for a record Christmas.
‘The top line figures were that Amazon’s net sales increased 13% to $143.1bn (almost £118bn) in its third quarter, compared with $127.1bn (almost £105bn) in third-quarter 2022. It’s not hard to see where much of that success was achieved. Amazon has revealed this October’s two-day sale was its “largest two-day October holiday “kick-off” event ever”. Prime members across 19 countries saved more than $1bn on millions of deals.
‘In the US, Amazon drilled down on its same-day and next-day deliveries for Prime Day, selling 25 million items for delivery using its superfast services. It says hundreds of thousands of items were delivered within four hours of purchase.
‘Amazon was able to do this because of a radical restructuring of its US operations. It’s a shakeup that we believe could be mirrored here in the UK in the near future. In the US, Amazon has moved from a single national fulfilment network to eight distinct regions. That has enabled the company to offer the fastest delivery speeds for Prime customers in its history. Similarly, in future months we expect to see Amazon focus its efforts on smaller regional hubs in the UK, to develop local same-day services.
‘That’s not the limit of Amazon’s ongoing improvements. It has also revealed a long-awaited update to its Buy with Prime service that finally enables US merchants to integrate it with Shopify. Amazon says the Buy with Prime app for Shopify will make it easier for sellers to manage their businesses, with inventory, pricing and promotions automatically synced in one place.
‘In addition, Amazon claims Buy with Prime Assist will enable sellers to offer 24/7 post-order customer service support at no additional cost, and the Buy with Prime cart feature will allow customers to purchase multiple Buy with Prime products in one transaction from a single merchant.
‘The app is now available in pre-release for Amazon Buy With Prime.com registered sellers. Shopify is eager for the full launch. It says: “This new app will enable Shopify merchants to offer Prime members fast, free delivery, and easy returns outside of Amazon for the first time ever. This will give their customers more flexibility in how they make their purchases from the independent brands they know, love and trust.”
