What is Amazon Business? Here’s what you need to know
Can Amazon Business make managing your business easier?
Supporting a business and maintaining its day-to-day operations is no easy feat. It requires planning, coordination and large decision making, regardless of the size of the company. One of the decisions that has to be made on a near-daily basis is the amount to spend on business products and their transport.
Amazon aims to make life a little easier with its ‘Business’ section of its online store. At first glance this looks like the storefront of the main Amazon site.
But dig deeper and you’ll find it has more to offer, and this guide will tell you everything you need to know about Amazon Business.
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What is Amazon Business?
Ordering items in bulk for a business can be complicated, having to find and negotiate deals with a range of different providers in separate locations. Amazon Business gathers providers together into a single, digital marketplace, and categorises their wares into sections for easier browsing and access; in essence, it’s similar to regular Amazon.
Amazon Business also offers a few business-specific features, such as the ability to pay by invoice and to download VAT invoices.
If your business assigns a staff member to be the account’s administrator, they can create multi-user accounts and set up approval workflows, customise spending reports, identify purchasing trends and popular items to help reduce wasteful spending, and create purchasing lists for other users of the account to follow. An administrator can also set spending limits, restrict item search categories and select preferred items they’d like their team to procure.
How much does Amazon Business cost?
Unlike other Amazon services, such as Amazon Prime, you do not need to pay for a subscription to create and maintain a business account. Only when you’re ordering items will you make any payments.
When using Amazon Business, you’ll probably notice that your browsing experience is similar to using regular Amazon, allowing you to compare a range of both similar and alternative items at different prices. Amazon Business does come with a few unique features, though.
For example, there’s the possibility of quantity-based discounts on select items when you’re making large purchases, and tax-exempt purchasing for qualifying organisations. The Amazon Business marketplace is also subject to dynamic quality pricing, meaning prices for items never stay the same and are always changing.
However, some Amazon Business customers claim they noticed no significant difference in prices when using a business account. It’s also important to note that Amazon Business doesn’t stock items from every possible provider. It’s likely to sell items from big-name brands and recognisable suppliers, but it may not have items stocked by your local businesses. This means you may be missing out on better deals.
If you’re unsure whether or not you’re getting the best possible deal through Amazon Business, you may want to compare prices with your local suppliers first before making a final decision.
How does shipping with Amazon Business work?
As with regular Amazon, Amazon Business focuses on supplying products with reasonable shipping times. For example, Amazon Business offers free one-day delivery on qualifying orders of £30 or more. To be considered for a qualifying order, items must be available for free delivery in the UK and must be sold or have the delivery fulfilled by Amazon.
If the delivery of your item does not meet all of these requirements, then your order will instead be eligible for free delivery in the UK, which takes the item 3-5 business days to arrive after the order has been made.
Do Amazon Business accounts have any other features?
One benefit of Amazon Business is its ability to integrate with currently used procurement systems such as SAP Ariba, Coupa and JAGGAER, making the transition from your previous system into Amazon Business an easier process.
Another business-friendly benefit is that the ability to pay for the product via invoice, so you can pay within net 30 days after it has been shipped rather than immediately. There’s also the option to add purchase order numbers to your orders, allowing for easier approvals and tracking.
