Last June Amazon announced that they would begin selling 3D printers and filament. This was heralded by the industry as a major step in the mainstream adoption of 3D printing. Today’s news is even bigger.
This morning Amazon.com, along with 3DLT announced a partnership in which Amazon will begin, offering for sale, 3D printed items on demand. 3DLT will be the first company to offer 3D printed products on the world’s largest ecommerce website. Amazon has plans to also partner with 4 other companies on this project in the immediate future.
“I think the media frenzy around 3D printing has certainly created a spike around 3D printers and supplies, and Amazon already sells those things. But what it’s also done is make consumers aware of the benefits of 3D printed products, and this is Amazon’s first attempt at tapping into that,” John Hauer, CEO of 3DLT said. “To the extent that consumers latch onto that, it could become bigger than the sales of 3D printers themselves.”
3DLT has launched their Amazon marketplace with 50 different items which they will print out for customers and ship within 6-10 days. The products range from belt buckles to iPhone cases, to jewelry, and more. They have plans on slowly adding more products to the marketplace in the coming weeks and months ahead.
“We’re thrilled to be included in the pilot,” says 3DLT COO Colin Klayer. “We think 3D print-on-demand will be very attractive to companies who want access to a new, digital channel. It will also be appealing to independent designers who’ve told us they want access to a large consumer market.”
This is an entirely new division on Amazon, who is clearly a trendsetter when it comes to ecommerce. Such a move by this company should certainly light a fire under the 3D printing industry, and competes directly with the likes of Shapeways, who also offers a large library of 3D models which can be printed in several different materials. Discuss Amazon and 3D printing at the forum.
