‘Tis the season and Amazon wants to give its Prime members a special reason for the season, too. On top of the usual free one- and two-day delivery, Amazon’s new shopping benefit for Prime members now allows anyone who shops at a "Buy with Prime" partner to enjoy pretty much the same thing.
Now, when you do a "Buy with Prime" purchase, you can track orders on the mobile app or in your Amazon account on Amazon.com, get 24/7 live chat customer service, and return eligible Buy with Prime orders at even more drop-off locations, with no shipping box or label required.
“We continue to innovate our Buy with Prime offering so that Prime members get access to an expanded selection and a convenient shopping experience, even when shopping beyond Amazon.com," said Peter Larsen, Amazon vice president of Buy with Prime.
"Just in time for the holiday season, we’re excited to roll out new Buy with Prime features that Prime members will love, including hassle-free returns and world-class customer service.”
What stores are part of “Buy with Prime”?
“Buy with Prime” may be a foreign concept to some, but it’s essentially a partnership between Amazon and other online retailers that allows consumers to purchase from a separate health foods store, just like if they were buying from Amazon.com itself. Fast, free delivery, a seamless checkout experience, and easy returns are all included.
ConsumerAffairs asked Amazon for what brands/stores are part of Buy with Prime and the company offered this list:
Health & Wellness brands include Moon Juice, Bala Bangles, Beast Health, and more.
In the Beauty & Grooming section, there's KNOW Beauty, Briogeo, Dr. Squatch, and more.
Over in Food & Beverage, brands include Carbone, Catalina Crunch, Truff, and more.
Notable brands in Apparel and accessories that are part of Buy with Prime include TopFoxx, Sherpani, Casely, and more.
In Kids & Fur Babies, Buy with Prime affiliates include Livie And Luca, Baketivity, Native Pet, and more.
Well-known brands in Home & Garden include Wyze, Peachy Dreams, Ember, and more.
If you want the whole list of Buy from Prime shops, here’s where you can find it.
How do Amazon Prime’ers manage the new perks?
Breaking down all that's good with Amazon's Buy with Prime pluses boils down to four key ingredients.
All orders all in one place. Shopping for the holidays can be overwhelming enough by itself, but trying to keep track of all of your orders has taken that to a new level with the abundance of online shopping consumers are doing. After shoppers place their first Buy with Prime order, they’ll see a new Buy with Prime Orders tab on the Your Orders page of your Amazon account. Note: The tab does not appear until you place your first Buy with Prime order at a participating online store.
Then, any future Buy with Prime orders from any online stores that you shop are added to the Buy with Prime Orders tab almost instantly. Order details are included automatically and shipment tracking information is updated once the order ships.
Get 24/7 live chat support for Buy with Prime orders. Contacting Amazon has always been pretty easy, but getting directly in touch with third-party merchants has had its ups and downs. Amazon says that it’s providing customer service to Prime members who need to get in touch with those Buy with Prime sellers. Using a live chat feature on their order detail page, Prime members will now be able to connect with trained Amazon representatives 24/7 for any questions they have about their Buy with Prime orders.
Making returns even easier. If you’ve returned anything to Amazon, lately, you may have noticed that in most situations, you can now ditch the box the item came in and simply take it to a return center, show them the QR code for the return, and you’re done. Amazon says that it’s expanded the number of places customers can do those no-box/label-free returns, too – now including UPS Store locations, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Go stores. If the item is eligible for return but not for the label-free, box-free option you can still return the item at USPS or UPS locations in a box with a return label.
Amazon adds trustworthy reviews on other sites. ConsumerAffairs readers know the extent Amazon has gone to to clean up fake reviews and now that the company thinks it’s corralled a lot of those, it’s extending its clean-up efforts to Buy from Amazon sites.
The company said that shoppers can now expect to see fully authentic reviews from Amazon, including the familiar Amazon star rating and testimonials from shoppers, on off-Amazon product pages for participating brands that offer Buy with Prime.