Amazon Business is a version of Amazon that is featured for businesses who would want to make purchases in bulk and control the purchases made for the company.
Many applications allow you to shop online like Amazon and eBay. Due to the arising needs and lockdown scenarios created by the Covid pandemic, many people are now familiarizing themselves with applications for online shopping.
One of the reasons why most buyers wish to shop online is because buyers can buy items of any brand that might not be available even in their local stores.
Amazon is an e-commerce website that allows you to buy items online, be it for personal reasons or business-related affairs.
To provide varied services and offers to buyers from enterprises so that they can control the procurement expenses of their staff altogether, Amazon has created a separate version of itself named “Amazon Business“.
It is an application that is free to use and offers its users certain featured benefits like multi-user accounts and discounts when ordering items in bulk.
Amazon Business also offers Amazon Business Prime just like how ordinary subscribers are given Amazon Prime subscription which offers additional benefits that can be used for a yearly fee.
Some of the featured benefits that Amazon provides to registered business users are providing you with team access to a lot of products related to your business, the ability to set a spending limit, monitor the team buying process, getting access to price discounts, etc.
Now let’s see in detail how Amazon’s Business works and how it helps various organizations, entrepreneurs, and startups with their office needs.
What is Amazon Business?
Amazon Business offers a platform to buy things needed for office use for businesses of all sizes. The application is built in such a way that it tailors its features and benefits according to the needs of businesses.
If you are a registered user of the application, it offers a wide range of items with the possibility of a discount when purchased in bulk. You can also create a multiuser account so that your team members can do the buying while you can just monitor the procurement expenses.
Any type of business or organization can become registered users to shop from Amazon Business such as startup companies, established businesses, hospital systems, educational organizations, etc.
Currently, Amazon Business is available in the following countries: US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India.
How is Amazon Business different from Amazon?
Amazon Business is a version of Amazon that offers business enterprises to order bulk purchases at lesser costs.
However, it also has some unique features itself that make it different from the common e-commerce websites used by the buyer for their personal purchases.
Let us review some of these features:
- Not only do you get access to price discounts while purchasing a lot of products, it also offers discounts on multi-unit purchases.
- This application tailors its products to specific business products that fits majorly for your business purposes, be it office or hospital equipments and essentials.
- You can also shop from specific business sellers with attributes such as women-owned, minority-owned etc.
- Once an Amazon Business account is created, you can create multiple user accounts that allows you to give your team members the authority and flexiblity to purchase items for your office needs.
- You can approve orders placed by your team members or set spending limits on your organisation’s buying.
- You can also share payment methods with your team. Amazon Business also offers AmazonCoporate Credit that allows you the ability to pay the purchase order of your teammates.
- If your orders qualifies for a consolidated delivery, then Amazon delivers your orders on a pallet to your doorstep.
- You can also track and monitor the shipment details of your orders.
- You can enrol in Amazon’s Tax exemption program if your organisation is eligible for tax-free purchasing.
How does Amazon Business work?
Amazon Business gives its customers the option to purchase items directly from Amazon or third-party sellers. More than half of the product items sold on Amazon are sold by third parties.
Third-party sellers can either fulfill all orders by themselves or choose to utilize fulfillment services offered by Amazon.
Products offered by both Amazon and third parties have details like ownership and other details like discounts offered by both parties listed on the product details page.
The first step to access all of the Amazon Business features is to create a free account on the e-commerce website. There isn’t much learning required to operate an Amazon Business account as it operates similarly to Amazon.
This allows customers to select and order goods based on best price, shipping, and seller preferences, etc. This eliminates the need to visit multiple stores or websites for different discount prices.
Here are some of the common functions that you can do using Amazon Business:
Change Account and Business Settings
If in case you would like to change a business setting, then you can follow these steps to do so:
- Sign in to your Amazon Business account.
- Click on your name from the corner of the page to access the drop-down menu.
- Click on the option named “Account Settings”.
Here, you can change the settings like adding new members, setting up approval workflows, see reports and invoices or save your preferred suppliers, etc.
Browsing and Shopping
To search for a product or item, all you need to do is search for the item in the search bar found at the top of the Amazon screen. Here, you will also be able to filter items by seller type, seller certification, etc.
Placing an Order
The checkout process is similar to the regular Amazon checkout process:
- Add the item you wish to your shopping cart.
- Once selected, you can go to your shopping cart and confirm your shipping details, payment method and then place your order.
How to join Amazon Business?
You can join Amazon Business by following these steps:
- You have to visit the Amazon Business website.
- Click on the option “Create a free Amazon Business account” found at the corner of the page.
- You will asked to enter your email id to access your account. You can use the email provided by your employer.
- For a quicker verification process, you can provide your credit card or tax information or you can skip this step to do later.
- Amazon will then verify you after 24 hours of registration.
What is Amazon Business Prime?
Business Prime is the paid version of Amazon Business. It is an application provided for customers who want more features and other benefits.
This application also has the ability to analyze the users spending patterns and creates a tailored policy for the company.
However, Business Prime is only available to a selected number of countries like the US, Germany, and Japan.
Here is a list of rates of different plans offered by Amazon:
- Essentials: $179 a year for up to three users.
- Small: $499 a year for up to 10 users.
- Medium: $1,299 a year for up to 100 users.
- Enterprise: $10,099 a year for over 100 users.
- Public Sector: $3,499 a year for over 100 users.
Some Features of Business Prime
Here are some of the few highlights of Business Prime that make it different from the normal version.
- AWS is a feature provided by Business Prime that allows the visibility of the company’s spending. This makes it easier to analyse the spending trends of the company.
- This application allows you to mark an item or a certain supplier under the “Preferred” category, so that they can improve their purchasing methods and consolidate their preferred suppliers.
- Users can choose a delivery day anytime even on the same day for many items.
- Amazon Business American Express Card is a no-annual-fee-credit card that members can get access to if they are using Business Prime.
- Business Prime members can request for a “Extended Terms for Pay by Invoice” that allows to extend the payment terms by up to 45 or 60 days.
The goal of Amazon Business is to reduce procurement costs and the complexity of finding items in the midst of unmatched selections.
Amazon also empowers its customers by providing transparency of price, flexible delivery options, product and seller ratings.
Amazon makes it easy for businesses to choose different options and compare multiple offers on products that they need.
As a popular e-commerce platform, Amazon offers both sellers and buyers a great number of choices and selling options with easier payments.
It also constantly innovates itself to provide personalized and structured products for each section of its customer base, such as the Amazon Business and Amazon Business Prime platforms.
With these options, businesses have various settings to customize their buying procedures, simplify payment procedures, and budget their purchases by tracking overall expenditure at periodic intervals.
The platform ensures that each business has access to an array of products best suited for their needs, customized for the optimization of their services and customer service while keeping them updated on the latest trends in their particular industry.
Now that you’re informed of the Amazon Business platform, let’s start exploring!
