One of the things that “made” the Amazon.com experience is the “one-click-to-buy” experience. So it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that the etailer’s AWS technology unit is bringing that same concept to its AWS Marketplace. AWS announced at its Re:invent event in Las Vegas this month that its Marketplace partners will be able to embed a “Buy with AWS” button on their website, allowing business customers access to its private offer software in much the same way a consumer might purchase a book, or video game, or any of millions of other items.

In a keynote presentation to partners at the event, Ruba Borno, vice president of global specialists and partners at AWS, said Buy with AWS was a way to “amplify every one of our partners, raise the volume so they can be heard.”

She said that this year, “over 99 percent” of the hyperscaler’s top 1,000 customers have at least one subscription through AWS Marketplace, which allows customers to access third-party software services in much the same manner they do Amazon’s offerings, a simple button on the Web. Only in this case, the button in question will be hosted on a partner’s site, eliminating the need for partners to redirect customers to the AWS Marketplace site.

Borno said that at launch, more than 50 partners globally will offer Buy with AWS buttons, including distributor Ingram Micro.

“We want to help customers get the value of AWS Marketplace from wherever they are,” Borno said.

There’s significant value for partners, too. Borno shared several stats that show Marketplace as a partner benefit, including 234 percent partner ROI for selling on Marketplace and deals that jump four to five times in size and close 50 percent faster.

Rohan Karmarkar, managing director for APO solutions architecture at AWS, said that adding a button to partner websites helps with the discoverability of partner offerings through the Marketplace. Previously, customers could find partner apps through the Marketplace itself, but those coming in from the partner side were limited to clicking through to deep links on the Marketplace side. That lacks the immediacy and familiarity of the “click a button to purchase” motion.

Karmarkar said AWS was surprised to discover that partners are also very interested in embedding the Marketplace button directly into their apps, allowing customers to purchase, convert, or upgrade their applications via the Marketplace mechanism directly in-app.

The familiarity of the button also eases the path for customers with small business customers who are unfamiliar with the details of navigating Marketplace but for whom a web button is comfortable. 

“Take the accounting office looking for new software,” Karmarkar said. “They may not have a lot of understanding of the Marketplace, but they know they go to a web page on their partner’s web page, and they buy it from them. I think it solves for those kinds of use cases.”

Jason Beal, vice president of worldwide partner ecosystems at security vendor Barracuda, said that his company sees a lot of momentum with Marketplace in the channel.

“We’re beyond the early adopters; we’ve got five to ten percent of our transacting partners there, and it’s becoming more and more mainstream for the partner channel,” Beal said.

He said selling via Marketplace was checking multiple boxes, including ease of use for customers, customer choice, and allowing partners access to incremental volume and spending.

“We want seamless and frictionless ways to transact business. We want to be easy to buy and deploy, and Marketplace works nicely like that,” Beal said.

In many cases, success on AWS Marketplace is a matter of partners giving it a try, Beal reported.

“Once a partner’s got about four private offers, the flywheel starts spinning.”