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Guide to buying on Amazon Business

We've compiled a helpful guide to answer some of the most frequently asked questions from businesses about buying on Amazon Business.
By Amazon Business Published on 28 March 2019

Amazon Business takes pride in serving business customers by connecting them to millions of easy-to-find products, with transparent pricing and convenient shipping options—including consolidated shipping. And because it was purpose-built to support purchasing managers and finance departments by aligning to their procurement processes and reporting practices, Amazon Business removes many remaining obstacles to making business purchases online.

 

From the beginning, the promise of Amazon Business has been to provide business buyers with access to the familiar Amazon.com shopping experience while helping administrators with business challenges such as purchase workflows, payments and reconciliation.

 

Today, Amazon Business is proud to serve millions of business customers and hundreds of thousands of business sellers around the world with more than $10 billion in annualized sales. In the US alone, Amazon Business serves nearly 80% of the 100 largest enrollment education organizations, 55 of the Fortune 100 companies, more than half of the 100 biggest hospital systems and more than 40% of the 100 most populous local governments. Amazon Business also offers access to nearly 150,000 US business sellers—hundreds of thousands globally – and hundreds of millions of products.

 

In order to ensure that customers and sellers alike are getting the most out of Amazon Business, we have compiled a helpful guide to answer some of the most frequently asked questions from businesses about our online store, including; Will they have to pay a subscription fee to join? What kinds of products are available and from which brands? What payment options are available and can administrators track and control what others are purchasing on the account?

 

Download the guide

Frequently Asked Questions about buying on Amazon Business

  • Amazon Business combines the selection, convenience and value customers have come to know and love from Amazon, with new features and unique benefits tailored to the needs of businesses of all sizes. 

  • Amazon Business customers range from sole proprietors to large enterprises with tens of thousands of employees on a single account. We serve millions of business customers around the world today, including hospitals, universities, Fortune 50 companies, government agencies, restaurants, labs, and more. 

  • Amazon Business allows you to reduce costs, save time, achieve greater visibility and control, and more easily reconcile transactions. With Amazon Business, you have access to: 

    • Competitive pricing and flexible payment options
    • A familiar and easy-to-use marketplace offering with  access to hundreds of thousands of business sellers in the U.S. and worldwide 
    • Free standard shipping on orders over $25, and free two-day shipping on eligible items with Business Prime 
    • Multi-user accounts with approval workflows, and detailed analytics 

  • Amazon Business is a store for all your business purchases, whether you’re buying office supplies, contractor-grade power tools, or technology. With access to tens of thousands of different suppliers, you’ll find everyday low business pricing on hundreds of millions of products. 

  • In addition to competitive pricing offered just for businesses on millions of products across Amazon, quantity discounts are available on select purchases. Save more when you buy more. 

  • It is free to register for an Amazon Business account. There’s no long-term commitment, and no minimum spend.

  • Amazon Business allows you to set up one central account with multiple buyers/purchasers, providing you with control and visibility over team spend. 

    You can easily add purchasers from your company through your settings. Add buyers by entering their email address, or upload the available spreadsheet template to add multiple buyers at once.

  • If your employee is already using their work email address for their personal account on Amazon, they can choose to convert their existing account into the main business account or create a new separate account. If the employee has used their existing Amazon account to make personal purchases, we recommend creating a new user account with a different email address. This protects the privacy of your employee’s account information and keeps their personal and business purchases and order history separate. 

  • You can purchase via credit or corporate purchasing cards, Amazon.com corporate credit, and Pay By Invoice (PBI).

  • With Amazon Business, you can: 

    • Create multi-user purchasing groups to match your organization structure and share payment methods
    • Customize approval workflows, set spending limits, and manage your organization’s buying
    • Track and monitor spending by your organization with dynamic charts and data tables
    • Guide company spending and implement policies with Guided Buying from Business Prime. Set preferred and restricted suppliers and products for your team 

  • Yes, but Business Prime is separate from individual, consumer Prime. Business Prime is an annual membership program designed for Amazon Business customers of all sizes who want many different business benefits, including the convenience of unlimited fast, free shipping for everyone on their business account, analytics and workflow control in the procurement experience.

  • Yes, we are enabled as a punchout catalog on nearly 90 leading procurement systems. We’ll work with you to configure your system so you can get started.

  • For participating commercial cards, buyers will receive enhanced transaction data with line-item detail on every Amazon Business purchase. This additional data, available on existing billing and data feeds provided by the supporting banks, facilitates easier reconciliation and offers greater levels of transparency and visibility on spend.

  • With Business Prime, over 100 million items are eligible for free two-day shipping, and we offer free same-day and one-day shipping on eligible items.

  • In addition to those items that are sold and fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon Business offers access to hundreds of thousands of business sellers worldwide.

  • Buyers often need to buy the same items again and again. With reorder lists on Amazon Business, you can make these repeat purchases even more efficiently and easily. Simply add items to a Reorder List and, with one click, you can order (and re-reorder) the items you need or share your purchasing list with your colleagues. 

  • You can use Amazon Business Analytics to view data about your orders, and create and filter reports based on your business needs. You can quickly view monthly trends, customize and save reports and filter by more than 75 fields, including PO number, order status, and invoice status. 

  • It can take as little as five minutes to get started, although it may take up to three days for your account to be verified. Amazon Business verifies all business accounts and asks for company information to complete the process in an effort to maintain exclusivity to business customers. 

  • Simply go to: business.amazon.com and click “Create a free account.” 

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