Recently, Amazon announced it was bringing its “Prime” shipping model to Amazon Business, a platform specific to business buyers. While Amazon Business has been around since 2015, a slew of new features for the service is indicative of Amazon’s continued pursuit of the B2B marketplace. For sellers with products that attract business buyers, understanding all things Amazon Business is crucial to success.
Amazon Business is meant to be a total purchasing solution for companies large and small. Launched in 2015, the platform allows a company administrator to create accounts for employees, control spending limits, and approve purchases. Additionally, Amazon Business will assign a purchase order number to all account purchases, allowing the administrator to easily report on any purchasing activity. Now, with the addition of Business Prime Shipping, any product fulfilled by Amazon will be eligible for free, two-day shipping for participating business buyers.
Before selling on Amazon Business, a seller must be approved by Amazon. Potential sellers will need to provide a variety of information in their application, however, existing sellers with a history of high performance can easily add business features to their Seller Central account.
Sellers have many options to gain traction among business buyers. One of the most prominent tools Amazon Business offers is business-specific pricing. Although a seller may offer a product on Amazon’s regular marketplace, it’s possible to offer the same product on Amazon Business at a discounted price.
Sellers can also offer quantity discounts exclusively to business buyers in order to encourage bulk purchases. These are fairly easy to set up in Seller Central if you have a registered Amazon Business account. Even if you choose not to set up quantity discounts, buyers can actively request discounts on detail pages, and sellers will be notified of these requests in Seller Central.
Finally, another perk of Amazon Business is the ability to add product manuals and other informational sheets to a listing. According to Amazon's messaging in Seller Central, business buyers are three times more likely to place an order when they download product documents from a detail page. This feature is also available in Seller Central, either on the home screen or on the new “B2B” tab.
From business pricing, to quantity discounts, to product manuals, there is no shortage of tools to take advantage of on Amazon Business. It’s important to regularly evaluate your product portfolio, identify products attractive to business buyers, and execute a business specific strategy in order to maximize profit.
Here at SupplyKick, our Amazon expertise provides immediate access to this sizable and still-maturing market. Learn how we can help both your B2C and B2B business succeed on Amazon.
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