Offer Local Pick Up and Delivery with Amazon Local Selling

One of the most exciting things to come out of the annual Amazon Accelerate conference held October 20-21 was the unveiling of Amazon Local Selling.

This new set of services allows sellers to list their products on the marketplace and also offer them to customers in nearby locations for in-store pickup or fast local delivery.

Several national and local retailers, including Mavis Discount Tire, Sears Hometown Store, Best Buy, and DataVision, participated in an early trial period of the program and currently have the service available. The program is now accepting new applications and will continue to expand this year and throughout 2022.

Keep reading to learn more about local selling on Amazon, including how you can join and what it looks like from a customer’s point of view.

What is Amazon Local Selling?

Selling on the Amazon marketplace has historically been a great way to reach more customers and grow your brand at scale. With Amazon Local Selling, you can do more of the same in your own local area.

Once enrolled, you’ll have the ability to mark your Amazon products as available for in-store pickup or fast delivery to customers who live within certain zip codes and within a 25-mile radius of your retail stores or warehouses.

Products available for local delivery or pick up will appear in Amazon search results and on product pages. A customer’s “Deliver to” address on their Amazon account will determine which products they see as available in their area. Search results recommendations will be tailored to them based on their shipping location and distance to local stores as well as the speed of product availability and unit price.

When customers are ready to make a purchase, they can toggle between the Delivery and Store pickup tabs on the product detail page and choose their desired option.

After completing a buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) order, customers will receive a confirmation email with information concerning the pickup time, location, and process (buyers must present their order number and ID and arrive during the designated 5-day window; family and friends will not be able to pick up on their behalf).

You’ll be notified upon purchase either through Seller Central or your API so you can prepare the item and set it aside for pick up. Amazon also gives sellers access to order tracking solutions to help manage local deliveries and store pickups.

Note that not all products will be available for pickup in all locations. At this time, in-store pick-up is available at no extra charge for Amazon customers and sellers.

3 Benefits of Local Selling on Amazon

Local selling on Amazon has several advantages for sellers. Here are three of its biggest benefits.

1) It’s Fast and Convenient for You and Your Customers

As an Amazon merchant, so much of your time and focus is on getting orders out of the door. Fulfilling orders across the country is no easy feat. Amazon Local Selling was uniquely designed so you can become much more than just a national shipping business.

For local self-delivery orders, you can use your own truck, van, or a third-party fulfillment vehicle to deliver products to customers within a nearby region that you define. It’s much easier to make — and meet — those key 1-2 day delivery promises, which will certainly keep your customers happy.

And with BOPIS, customers can conveniently shop for local products from one central place and have their orders ready for pick up in as little as one hour. Talk about delighting your customers! If your in-store experience is memorable enough, you might even see a few extra purchases, too.

Plus, with both of these services, you’ll get that face-to-face customer interaction that the Amazon marketplace simply can’t provide.

2) Local Customers Can Get to Know Your Brand Better

Amazon has thrown more support behind the growth of small and medium-sized businesses in recent years, and for good reason. According to the program's press release, more than half of all products purchased on the marketplace are sold by third-party sellers, most of whom are smaller retailers.

The local selling program gives small businesses an excellent opportunity to reach more customers in their own area and, conversely, allows community members to better support your brand.

These local connections can help to inspire more customer loyalty and repeat purchases across your entire catalog.

3) You Can Easily Expand Your Product Selection

This alone could be a huge revenue driver for your business. With local selling, retailers can also offer products that they previously couldn’t sell before. For example, maybe you struggled with selling large or fragile items in the past because fulfillment was just too much for your business to handle. Or, maybe you never even offered them — until now.

In the keynote speech during day two of Amazon Accelerate where the initiative was introduced, Amazon’s Director of Local Selling, Pat Bigatel, nicely summarized the problem this program aims to solve:

Shipping products over long distances creates limits on what you can sell online. You’re challenged with the cost of shipping low-priced, heavy, or bulk items, with safeguarding fragile items or ensuring freshness of perishable items. With Local Selling, you can now extend beyond a national shipping business while better serving and engaging your local customers near your physical locations with new local delivery and buy online pick up in store technologies."

Another interesting value add is your ability to offer add-on services, such as product assembly or installation, for the products you deliver. This could make all the difference in securing a sale.

Who Can Enroll in the Program?

Local selling is currently available to select sellers who have the capability to offer delivery services to customers’ homes and BOPIS at their retail stores or warehouses. Note that you may not only offer BOPIS services; you must also provide local delivery to customers as well.

Visit the Local Selling program page for more information on using integrators and other top FAQs about these services.

If you’re interested in joining, you’ll need to submit your application to Amazon and wait for their team to contact you. From there, you can begin to set up your offerings.

What Do You Think?

Now that you know more about local selling on Amazon, will you give it a try? The launch of any new program, especially one of this magnitude, is bound to have some growing pains, but it seems like an excellent opportunity to build your brand and gain more of a local following. We’ll be keeping an eye on it for sure!