Amazon Anywhere: Sell Your Products in Virtual Environments

One of the best ways to capture sales is to meet customers where they are. For eCommerce brands, that means getting your products in front of your target audience in the online spaces where they spend the most time. That’s the idea behind the Amazon Anywhere initiative.

What is Amazon Anywhere?

Amazon Anywhere is a new Amazon offering that lets brands sell their products directly within online spaces like video games, virtual worlds, and mobile apps. As people spend more of their time playing online games—over 30 minutes a day on average, according to Statista—Amazon Anywhere enables immersive shopping experiences within the games themselves. Consumers can link their Amazon account to their favorite (participating) games and easily purchase physical items they want.

What’s the Benefit of Amazon Anywhere?

Amazon Anywhere is designed to provide benefits to all parties involved:

• For Amazon and its sellers: It has the potential to increase sales by creating more opportunities for products to be seen while also ensuring convenience in the ordering process.
  
  
• For consumers: Amazon Anywhere makes it easier to buy products they want without interrupting their chosen activity. They don’t have to pause their game to go buy a product elsewhere, they can purchase during what they're already doing.
  
  
• For developers and creators: Amazon Anywhere gives them an additional way to monetize the games and apps they create.

5 Fast Facts About Amazon Anywhere

Amazon Anywhere is new, so a lot about how it will work in practice remains to be seen. Here are a few things we know at this point:

1. Amazon Anywhere first launched in May 2023.

The company posted about it on the About Amazon website, with the primary selling point that “you can now discover and buy physical products from Amazon stores without ever having to leave your game or app.” It’s one more extension of Amazon's ongoing work to make the purchasing experience as seamless as possible.

2. The offering first debuted within Peridot.

Peridot is an augmented-reality game by the creators of Pokèmon Go available both on Android and iOS. Amazon Anywhere lets players purchase branded merchandise within the game like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and pillows.

3. Amazon Anywhere allows for purchases of physical items within a game or app.

That sets it apart from the option to purchase virtual items or upgraded features, which is already common within many apps and games. Developers can set it up to show product details, including real-time pricing and shipping options within the game itself.

4. Amazon Anywhere can be enabled within many virtual landscapes.

According to the Amazon website, the list includes:

• Video games
• Mobile games
• Mobile apps
• The metaverse
• Websites

Developers interested in enabling Amazon Anywhere within their virtual products can contact Amazon for more information to get started.

5. Amazon handles many aspects of the eCommerce experience for Amazon Anywhere purchases.

The company will manage the ordering experience, the fulfillment process, and post-purchase customer service. Products purchased within a virtual experience will be shipped and delivered just like any other Amazon FBA purchase.

What does Amazon Anywhere Mean for Sellers?

Amazon Anywhere is currently invite-only. That means for most Amazon sellers, it won’t necessarily change anything—for now at least. If Amazon Anywhere proves to be popular, it may become a smart selling tool for savvy Amazon vendors to take advantage of soon. For now, the most you can do is fill out a form to be added to Amazon’s “interest list.”

If you already offer mobile apps or games in addition to selling physical products, filling out that form may be well worth it. If you sell relevant physical products that would be a natural fit to promote within your virtual product, Amazon Anywhere could be a lucrative option to add to your strategy sooner rather than later.

For other sellers, Amazon Anywhere may offer a future opportunity to partner with app providers or developers. If you can create or source products relevant to a popular virtual experience, you could gain a new selling channel.

Amazon Anywhere: Potential for the Future

For now, plenty of people are happy enough to pull up the Amazon website or app each time they want to find an item to buy. But Amazon knows that the easier you make the purchasing process, the more people will buy. Removing barriers to purchase is a powerful way to increase sales, while also creating an ordering experience people like.

Amazon Anywhere may be the next step toward making online ordering even more seamless. It lets customers skip the (already minimal and easy) steps they must take now each time they place an order. When they can make a purchase without even stopping their entertainment experience, it could lead to both more sales and happier customers—a win-win scenario for Amazon, sellers on the platform, and consumers alike.