Amazon wants more sellers to participate in its subscriptions program known as Subscribe & Save. The program offers consumers discounts and free shipping if they sign up to receive regular deliveries of a particular item in such categories as household goods, baby care, pet supplies, grocery, health & wellness, and beauty & personal care.
Amazon opened the program to sellers who participate in Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in 2016; prior to that, only products sold and shipped by Amazon.com were eligible.
This week, Amazon said it was making it easier for FBA sellers to sell through the program with the following pitch: “Adding your products to Subscribe & Save gives you access to highly engaged, loyal, and repeat customers.”
Amazon said it is now easier for sellers to see which products are eligible for the program and to manage their offers:
Now, it’s easier to discover which of your products are eligible for Subscribe & Save, manage your Subscribe & Save offers, and more – all in one convenient place.
What’s new?
- See all of your eligible products
- Search for SKUs
- Easily add all or some of your products to the program
- See and sort by offer status
- Quickly take action on low or out-of-stock items
Amazon provides a 5% discount to shoppers who subscribe to between 1-4 different products delivered to the same address in the same month, and 15% when they subscribe to 5 or more different products. It’s currently advertising 20% off for certain categories meeting certain conditions.
Sellers should be aware that Amazon requires an 85% in-stock rate (26 of the past 30) days, and failure to maintain stable pricing is a pricing violation.
In addition, it requires a long commitment: sellers are required to continue to fill orders for up to six months after they remove an offer or withdraw from the program. Failure to comply could negatively affect seller performance metrics.
The benefits of the program include consistent sales and increased visibility. “Your products will benefit from a dedicated store front, a custom search filter option and priority placement.”
Until Amazon can figure out a way to not have items that no one would want to buy every month in this program, I won’t sign up for it either as a buyer or a seller. I sell sewing patterns and I see on the occasional product page for a sewing pattern a button to subscribe and save. Why would anyone want to keep buying the same sewing pattern monthly? That doesn’t even make sense.