Customer obsession is at the heart of what we do at Amazon Business, and providing our unseen customer a seat at the table in every meeting is of utmost importance. We are constantly seeking ways to understand customer needs. In 2019, we conducted a survey to figure out what you, our customers, seek in a purchasing solution.

Of the 16 benefits we tested, we found the following eight to be relatively more important in driving choice.^[1] Here’s what we found.

1. Makes it easy to buy products our organization needs

We recognize that you want to provide buyers in your organization with what they need to be successful in their roles. Whether it is a teacher purchasing supplies to make classes interesting or an office manager at a small business buying breakroom supplies or a procurement executive purchasing for a large organization, they all have one common need: simplify buying. By combining the familiar shopping experience of Amazon with business specific functionalities, Amazon Business makes buying for work as easy as buying for your personal needs.

Buyers can create a shopping list of items they frequently buy for work, reorder the entire list or order individual items from that list at any time and in multiple quantities For buyers who do not have the time to create a list, we have created lists of essential items spanning five categories (Office supplies, IT peripherals, Breakroom supplies, Janitorial and sanitation supplies, and Maintenance (MRO)) to get them started. Buyers can now purchase from these lists, add to these lists, or copy items from these lists to create their own catalogs. With organizations transitioning to remote work, we have also created work-from-home essentials that enables employees to stay connected. All these features are part of Amazon Business' replenishment solution to simplify buying.

2. Offers access to products that are relevant for our organization’s needs

Ease of use of a purchasing solution goes hand-in-hand with relevant selection. Whether it is a one-time unique purchase or a list of items your organization needs frequently, we have the requisite selection. We have curated a selection of items across six categories as part of Business Plus that lets buyers choose from items that are highly rated (4+ star ratings) and frequently purchased by other customers.

3. Offers a user-friendly online experience

With the digital transformation of business purchasing, a seamless online experience is a must-have. We translate the best practices we have developed in serving consumers through Amazon.com into a frictionless and customized online experience for our business customers. The experience and navigation are similar to Amazon.com and provides your buyers the trust, convenience, and familiarity they desire to use Amazon Business with confidence.

4. Enables our organization to consolidate spend across fewer purchasing solutions

Purchasing needs vary by industry verticals, departments, titles, and individual buyers. It is cumbersome and cost inefficient for organizations to manage different purchasing solutions. We realize that you need a purchasing solution that has the breadth and relevance of selection. Amazon Business is that destination where sellers offer products tailored to businesses. The first step in procurement consolidation is access to the purchasing solution. Buyers can access Amazon Business easily through both desktop and mobile so that they can purchase when they are in the office or on the move. You can also easily enable single sign-on so that all buyers within your organization can securely access Amazon Business with one-click access. Even if your organization has been using another purchasing system, you maybe able to integrate that system with Amazon Business to enable your buyers to consolidate all their purchases on a single purchasing solution - Amazon Business.

5. Helps manage total cost of purchasing

While choosing a purchasing solution, businesses do not just look for discounts; they evaluate the long-term value of the relationship. We enable organizations to obtain long-term value by offering them an option to become Business Prime members. You can unlock Progressive discounts on repeat purchases of items your organization buys frequently. We will track purchases across multiple buyers in your organization and automatically apply the Progressive discount. The more, buyers across your organization purchase the same item, the more discounts your organization earns. We also provide Business Prime members with features such as Guided Buying (not available with Business Prime Duo) that enable you to identify your organization’s preferred products or sellers, and restrict or block product categories, to guide buyer behavior across your organization. This fosters consistency across the organization resulting in further savings. You can also keep a lid on rogue spend by defining approval workflows for buying policies. This drives compliance as buyers are encouraged to seek approvals for purchases above a certain spend threshold or from restricted sellers/categories.  

Free shipping on eligible items and 45-60 day payment terms on pay by invoices make Business Prime membership even more valuable. You can evaluate the economic impact of Amazon Business and Business Prime in this report published by Forrester Research. This positive impact may free up money that your organization can reinvest to innovate on behalf of your customers.

6. Offers shipping options that fit my organization’s needs

Businesses want their employees get what they need, when they need it. We improve your delivery experience by enabling your buyers to customize their delivery preferences. For eligible orders, they can choose preferred delivery days and times during the week for addresses they have stored in their Amazon Business account so that we can deliver as per your buyers’ convenience. They can also provide customized delivery instructions such as access codes, location within the building where we need to deliver packages etc. resulting in fewer missed or delayed shipments.

7. Frees up employee time to focus on high-value activities and job roles

Organizations do not want buyers in their organization to spend more than the requisite time on business purchases. They want to empower their buyers with tools to purchase what they need to be successful in their roles. Creation and sharing of lists and recurring deliveries on items buyers purchase frequently helps them save time on business purchases. The less time that buyers spend discovering and buying products they need, the more time they have to serve customers.

8. Has competitive pricing

The gross merchandise value of the B2B ecommerce market in the US in 2020 is expected to be $1.089 Trillion.^[2] Even marginal cost reduction on such a large volume will result in significant savings for organizations. To begin with, you can open an Amazon Business account at no cost. Additionally, you can take advantage of business only pricing on a wide selection of products. You can add as many purchasers as you want to your organization’s account and enable them to leverage Amazon Business’ competitive pricing.

At Amazon Business, we do not stop with just understanding customer needs. We incorporate that information to build products and features, to best address those needs, and offer delightful customer experiences. We hear your business needs loud and clear and have solutions to address them. Please create a free Amazon Business account to reshape buying within your organization.

^{[1] 2019 Brand Foundations Quantitative Research conducted by Amazon Business: 15-minute online survey among buyer decision makers in the US belonging to the healthcare, commercial, education, and government verticals. Sample = 867. In a trade-off exercise consisting of 16 benefits, the eight benefits listed in this article were relatively more important in evaluating a new purchasing solution. These benefits were defined as being relatively more important because their importance scores exceeded the average importance score of all the attributes. The average importance score was 100. The eight benefits we have described in this article have a score equal to or greater than 100 resulting in them being more important than the other benefits that we tested. Survey question: Which of the following benefits are most and least important to you when evaluating new purchasing solutions for your organization?}

^{[2] B2B Ecommerce Market in the United States, Statista, 2018.}