In ecommerce, you can’t always follow the playbook. Sometimes you have to rewrite it. That’s what Coalition Technologies has been doing for almost 15 years from its Los Angeles headquarters. With hundreds of ecommerce clients and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue generated for those clients, Coalition Technologies has become a leading digital agency for online brands.
“We’re focused on using technology to help small and midsize brands grow through ecommerce,” says Jordan Brannon, President and Co-founder at Coalition Technologies.
One of the technologies its leveraging for ecommerce brands is Buy with Prime.
“When Coalition Technologies first heard about the Buy with Prime experience, we were really excited,” Jordan says. “For a long time, we were coaching merchants on how to be successful on Amazon.com and how to be successful on their own ecommerce websites—but the lines never really crossed.”
When Buy with Prime launched, “it was instant excitement for us and for a lot of our merchants,” he says.
Buy with Prime blends the best of both worlds. Coalition Technologies and its merchants can tap into the trust of Prime and offer a shopping experience that millions of Prime members love directly on brands’ ecommerce sites. The end result is lowered customer acquisition costs (CACs), increased conversions, and stronger consumer trust for their clients.
Lower customer acquisition costs, increase lifetime value
The pursuit of new customers can be a costly endeavor for ecommerce businesses. Merchants are trying to get the most out of each marketing dollar. Using Buy with Prime has made a tangible impact on the lifetime value that clients can expect to get from customers.
Jordan believes the key to lowering CACs is repeat customers.
“Coalition Technologies has found that you have the lowest CAC when you get a customer to come back and purchase with you for a second time,” he explains. “And that cost of acquisition decreases with each subsequent purchase, because as you build a stronger relationship with a customer, the cost of acquiring that next order continues to go down.”
One of the perks of Buy with Prime is that merchants can retain order and customer information, like email addresses, that they can use for remarketing.
“Because we have access to customer information, we can develop content marketing and follow up with marketing strategies specifically tailored to that Buy with Prime audience,” Jordan says.
The team can look at products that a merchant’s customer buys and see which additional products might complement it. From there, they develop segmentation or specialized remarketing campaigns geared to increase upsells and cross-sells.
“The overall lifetime value of that customer really begins to increase as a result,” says Jordan.
Boost conversions on Facebook and Instagram
Social media is another important lever that Coalition Technologies uses help merchants grow.
“There is no place that feels more like the Wild West than social media feeds,” Jordan says. “So ecommerce brands need to have something new and engaging, something that drives a high conversion intent.”
That’s where Coalition Technologies has tapped Social Ads for Buy with Prime for merchants. The app can create social ads featuring the Buy with Prime badge and the merchant’s products and then use Meta’s Conversion API to attribute conversions.
“Social Ads for Buy with Prime allows us to create a new type of content that has a high likelihood of conversion through some of the most well-known social selling channels,” he explains. “Part of the value that we see with Buy with Prime is that it has an impact across any of your audiences and any of your channels because customers have this high degree of trust for that purchasing experience with Prime.”
He adds, “We’re seeing higher conversion rates, faster time to purchase, and higher customer satisfaction for shoppers. This really does allow brands to be more aggressive and more efficient with their advertising budgets.”
Attract and convert shoppers with the trust of Prime
Another piece of the customer acquisition puzzle is building trust from the very first brand interaction. For growing ecommerce brands, trust can inspire a casual browser to add to cart and complete a first-time purchase.
“We love using Buy with Prime for top-of-funnel engagement for new customer acquisition because it allows us to reach a shopper who is completely unknown to the brand,” says Jordan.
Merchants offering Buy with Prime can display the Buy with Prime badge, the Prime logo, and transparent delivery estimate on their product pages. Using the marketing tool kit, merchants can also display the Buy with Prime badge and messaging across their marketing content, including on social and in email.
As a benefit exclusive to Buy with Prime, merchants can display product reviews and ratings from their Amazon.com listings directly on their sites using Reviews from Amazon, helping build shopper trust and familiarity.
“Because of that blend, we’re really seeing some fantastic outcomes in terms of increased return on ad spend, better conversion rates, and higher order values,” Jordan emphasizes. “If you can increase the likelihood that a consumer wants to purchase with you because they’re seeing that Prime logo, they’re seeing the Prime delivery promise, that’s a wonderful first step. And frankly, you’re spending a significant investment to get customers to your store, so you want them to convert.”
When those customers do convert, the fast, free delivery and streamlined fulfillment from Buy with Prime helps to ensure that those customers are delighted by the rest of the buying experience. Because Buy with Prime orders are fulfilled by Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, Amazon handles the storage, picking, packing, shipping, and returns. Amazon sellers can take advantage of pooled inventory and ship Buy with Prime orders in as fast as one day.
Get the most out of peak shopping periods
Peak shopping periods like Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or any major sales event present a unique opportunity for brands to maximize visibility on products. But the pressure can be high. Getting it right can mean more first-time customers, more repeat shoppers, and overall increased brand awareness. Getting it wrong can mean wasted budget and a missed chance to stand out in the crowd.
Coalition Technologies’ clients have witnessed the strategic significance of using Buy with Prime during peak shopping seasons, such as Prime Day and holidays.
“Leveraging Buy with Prime during the holiday season and during some of the key Amazon.com sales events that happen throughout the year allows you to get access to some of the most engaged shopping audiences at a very critical moment in their buying decision,” says Jordan. “For some of Coalition Technologies’ merchants, they earn 25–30% of their annual revenue in the span of 2–3 three weeks around certain holiday periods. They really have to nail their advertising strategy and their customer experience strategy at those times.”
The trust that Buy with Prime branding fosters gives ecommerce companies a better shot at having shoppers convert when they land on a product page. Jordan believes this holds true for brands big and small.
He says, “If you’re a more established brand and you have a significant audience of your own, Buy with Prime creates an opportunity for you to have an additional touchpoint through a channel that perhaps your marketing has not been integrated into.”