Since its initial launch in 2015, Amazon Business has changed the way businesses can sell on the marketplace by addressing the changing needs of business customers and providing them with a more efficient process of buying and selling online.

In its first year, Business generated $1 billion in sales showcasing the additional opportunity for sales growth to new business customers. Now with more than a million customers on the platform, Amazon Business has become a viable prospect for many sellers, manufacturers, and distributors.

With more than a million customers now using Amazon Business, setting up a B2B strategy on the marketplace has become a viable prospect for many sellers, manufacturers, and distributors.

An introduction to Amazon Business

As the official B2B platform from Amazon, Amazon Business is geared towards business customers with features including multiple user account permissions, additional credit and payment options, and all the traditional benefits of the marketplace.

The platform is designed to create a business-friendly option that is integrated into the standard website. This allows sellers to sell to consumers and businesses simultaneously with the flexibility to provide different products, prices, and content to business buyers. Amazon Business marketplace is currently operational in the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India.

Selling on Amazon Business

Amazon Business is currently only available on for accounts enrolled in the Professional Seller plan, which costs £28.75 (including VAT) per month. No additional fees are required for merchants with an existing Professional Seller account. Sellers must also agree to Amazon’s B2B selling requirements which include:

• Correctly processing tax exemptions

• Providing a shipment tracking number for every order

• Adding a packaging slip with every package sent to show the purchase order number provided by the customer.

The features and benefits of Amazon Business

Aside from easy setup, selling on Amazon Business provides some exclusive features only available to business customers, including: 

• The option to offer products only to business buyers

• Set special pricing and quantity discounts

• Offering additional services like product installation

• Access to Amazon Business-targeting for advertising campaigns

• Providing additional product information such as spec sheets, compliance certificates, user guides, technical drawings, and more

• Displaying business quality or diversity certifications like ISO 9001

• Business customers can request quantity discounts

• European merchants can set up VAT rates to enable VAT-exclusive pricing

The experience of selling on Amazon Business can vary, depending on whether a merchant’s product offers are equally appealing to both types of buyers. However, manufacturers and industry or commercial product sellers can take advantage of the full range of features that are tailored to B2B selling.

Considerations

For sellers that are interested in selling B2B on Amazon, several key opportunities and drawbacks should be considered before enrolment.

One of the advantages of selling on Amazon Business is the opportunity to increase product visibility, reaching an even bigger segment of potential customers. Business transactions will also typically involve higher spend and purchasing in volume, which provides a potential for growing sales faster. Amazon search engines are also pivotal for the discovery process, as high organic rank can increase brand awareness and lead to purchases off-platform.

Aside from the Professional account charges, no additional fees make Amazon Business a low-risk strategy for testing various products, and sellers with an established Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) account can continue selling using Amazon’s systems.

Although the platform offers various features, it should be noted that Amazon does not recognise business customers as any different from regular marketplace customers. Amazon considers these buyers as customers of the platform, not each business, resulting in limited abilities to communicate with customers during the buying process. This includes rules on what can and cannot be included in packages, making it more difficult to increase brand awareness, especially for less established sellers.

Expand your channels with Amazon B2B

Although there are limitations, Amazon Business is an ideal solution for manufacturers, distributors, and business owners seeking an alternative channel that can provide access and tools for reaching new customers. Features that enable selling in large quantities at discounted pricing, providing business-focused product information, and setting up recurring orders are ideal for managing the B2B process.