Amazon B2B Platform: Amazon Business
Amazon B2B Selling
Amazon Business provides purchasing solutions that allow registered businesses to shop for business supplies on Amazon.
Hoping to reap the same success as their B2C market, the platform (initially launch in May 2015) is Amazon’s attempt to dominate the B2B sector as well.
Amazon Business gives administrators the ability to add and manage business account users and features, such as payment methods and shipping addresses, approval workflows, and reporting options, depending on the business needs.
Business account users who have requisitioner permissions can also place orders.
Companies registered on Amazon Business have accessibility to discounts on a wide variety of items from school supplies to IT and lab equipment.
According to Amazon, with a full suite of tools to enable B2B ecommerce, all sizes of businesses, from SBA organizations to large enterprises, can find new ways to engage professional customers in supply chain relationships using the platform.
Amazon Business allows companies to cater to the specific requirements of business customers by providing features optimized for business to business transactions, such as:
1) Exclusive Business SKUs: You can create listings only for businesses, visible only to business buyers.
2) Business Pricing and Quantity Discounts: Discounted business prices and tiered quantity discounts are only available to customers in the Amazon Business Seller Program.
For businesses, finding attractive pricing is as essential as finding the right product, and customers have many suppliers from which to choose. Business prices and quantity discounts can help capture customers’ attention, gain their trust, and earn their business.
The Amazon Business Seller Program offers two types of discounts:
- Business Price: A discounted price available to Amazon Business Seller Program customers regardless of the quantity purchased.
- Quantity Discount: Tiered discounts available to Amazon Business Seller Program customers for highervolume purchases. Each seller in the Amazon Business Seller Program specifies tiers for quantity pricing.
3) Tax Exemption: Amazon has extended the tax exemption program to sellers. You can now provide tax exemption for qualified purchases with just the click of a button.
4) Seller Credentials: As a seller, you can also add credentials such as ISO 9001 certified, small business, women, minority and veteran-owned business to your seller profile, which will be displayed to business customers.
5) Business Product Identifiers: You can provide manufacturer and distributor part numbers (MPN/DPN) to make their products easily discoverable by customers or National Stock Numbers (NSN) for purchases from government procurement.
Who can sign up for an Amazon Business account?
Businesses, institutions, enterprises, or other organizations that have a location within the United States and have been assigned a TIN (tax identification number) are eligible to apply for a business account.
Amazon Business is also available to customers in U.S. Territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands) and APO/FPO addresses.
Sellers who have the capability to fulfill the following requirements of business customers are eligible for the program:
1) High bar for performance (see requirements below):
2) If the seller participates in Amazon Tax Collection Services, the seller must honor the customer’s tax
exemption through the Amazon Tax Exemption Program.
3) There must be a tracking number, packing slip, and purchase order number with every business order package.
After your account is verified you can manage your business account, and add others from your organization to your business. Each new user creates a business user account that is associated with your organization’s business account.
To get started, businesses can select the option that best describes their company:
Once sellers complete the Business Account registration process, they can shop on Amazon.
Pro-Tip: Verification can be immediate or take up to a few business days. After verification is complete, sellers will receive a confirmation email, and can purchase on Amazon.com as a business customer, and start managing their business profile.
When sellers sign up for an account, they can either convert their personal Amazon account into a business user account, or create a brand new account.
If sellers convert an existing personal account into a business user account, all account information including order history, addresses, payment methods, and personal information will be transferred and viewable by administrators of your organization’s business account.
Administrators will also have the ability to manage or close the account.
After an organization’s business account is registered and verified, they can purchase on Amazon as a business customer.
If the company already has a registered Amazon Business account, they can ask the account Administrator to invite them as a user to the existing business account so that they can purchase on behalf of the company.
Pro-Tip: If you have used your existing Amazon account to make personal purchases, Amazon recommends that you create a new business user account (rather than converting an existing Amazon account) to protect the privacy of your account information.
Amazon Business FBA Fee Schedule
The Amazon Business Seller program includes a monthly subscription fee and certain applicable referral fees. These features are available to sellers in the Amazon Business Seller Program only.
Monthly subscription fee: Sellers are required to have a Professional Selling Plan to participate in the Amazon Business Seller program,
and the associated Monthly Subscription Fee and other Selling Fees apply. For a limited time, sellers participating in the Amazon Business Seller program pay no additional monthly program fee to participate.
The Fulfillment by Amazon Fee Schedule applies to business orders fulfilled by Amazon.
For business transactions involving products in the categories listed below, Amazon deducts the greater of the applicable referral fee percentage or applicable per-item minimum referral fee calculated on the total product value (the total amount paid by the buyer for all units of a product within a product category in a purchase: price * quantity + shipping + gift wrap), excluding any taxes collected through Amazon’s tax calculation services.
Pro-Tip: Prior approval may be required to offer products in the categories listed under “Categories Requiring Approval. Referral fees on orders from Amazon Business customers vary by product category.
Below is an example of the Amazon Business Referral Fee Schedule:
Click here and log into Seller Central for additional category guidelines for the Industrial & Scientific category.
For more on Amazon Business, email [email protected]
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