Most people are likely to know Amazon primarily as a platform for B2C businesses. With the “Amazon Business” service, however, Amazon is also aimed specifically at business customers in the B2B sector. We took a closer look at the service to be able to weigh up whether registering for Amazon Business is actually worthwhile.
What is Amazon Business?
Put simply, Amazon Business is a service that transfers Amazon's familiar business model from the B2C sector to the B2B sector. This means that all items available on Amazon can be purchased for business purposes. Registration is required for business use (instructions are given at the end of the article). After successful registration, you can access the Business Marketplace. In terms of design, this differs from the usual B2C marketplace, but is identical to it in terms of structure and functionalities.
Why Amazon wants to promote B2B businesses on the platform is clear when you take a closer look at market volume and growth prospects. According to an evaluation by strategy consultancy FOSTEC & Company, the market volume in the B2B sector is around twice as large as in the B2C market. In addition, the proportion of B2B online transactions is even lower than in the B2C sector. Further analyses assume that this share will increase significantly in the coming years as a result of progressive digitization. The market's growth prospects are therefore definitely there.
Benefits for companies
What are the benefits of the “Amazon Business” service for companies? Is registration even worthwhile?
1. Wide range of products
Through the existing infrastructure, Amazon offers access to over 250 million products from different retailers, which every company needs. You can compare these products with other products based on different criteria. So you can always find the best and cheapest product.
2. Invoices and net prices
When buying via Amazon Business, you can filter whether sellers issue ordinary invoices with correctly shown sales tax and all other mandatory information. You can also search and filter for net prices. This point is particularly relevant in a B2B context, as in most cases net payment is required and a correct invoice showing VAT is required.
3. Price differences and volume discounts
As a business customer, you get cheaper offers for some products than on Amazon's classic B2C marketplace. In addition, you can benefit from exclusive volume discounts. For larger orders, these can either be requested before purchase or shown by the retailer himself.
4th payment term
For business transactions, it is possible to order on account and pay them with a payment term of up to 30 days.
5. Purchasing Management and Analyses
A particularly relevant point for larger companies is that employees can be assigned to different groups with different rights and budgets. In addition, tools offer the opportunity to evaluate purchases and discover and highlight savings potential.
All in all, the service thus offers companies a clear way to centralize and standardize business orders for the most part. In particular, volume discounts, presentation of net prices and correctly listed invoices offer companies clear added value over the traditional B2C seller sector. Registration can therefore definitely be worthwhile.
