People who want to get their hands on new 3-D printed products have a new avenue to do so thanks to a new Amazon storefront that allows people to customize and purchase products that are then fabricated on demand.
The 3D Printed Products store allows people to pick from a small selection of items including cufflinks, bobblehead dolls and bracelets, and then customize them with text or design tweaks before getting them printed and delivered. Don’t expect two-day shipping, though–delivery estimates on all the products I looked at said that they probably won’t ship until 6-10 days from now.
Still, it seems like a good way for consumers to get their hands on 3-D printed goods without having to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a printer of their own. Shapeways, another online marketplace for similar products, has already had some success offering a similar service, though Amazon’s move has the potential to bring these items to a much larger audience.
This move is also a way for the Seattle-based online retail giant to dip its toes in a market that could stand to replace chunks of its business in the future. After all, if people are printing items they would ordinarily buy from Amazon, the company’s sales could take a hit.
Last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted that such a change would take place far in the future.
Amazon has recently been expanding its offerings in the world of 3-D printing. The products on sale today are an extension of the 3-D printing section that the company launched last year, where it also sells printers and raw materials like plastic filament that can be melted through a 3-D printer’s extruder to create objects.
