While ChannelAdvisor‘s Catalyst Connect conference is just a week away on the 20th April in London, the Catalyst Americas conference is in full swing in Las Vegas.
Jodi Gaines Pereira, co-founder of ReplyManager which was acquired by XSellco early in 2015, is at Catalyst US and exclusively reporting back on some of the sessions for Tamebay, perhaps a preview of what to expect at Catalyst Connect in London next week:
Amazon Business Ramping Up for 2016
Rob Green, Director & GM of Amazon Business’ go-to-market team, wrapped up ChannelAdvisor Catalyst 2016 with some great insight into Amazon’s drive into the B2B market.
Until recently, Amazon has focused on three pillars, things they feel they’ve gotten good at: Amazon Prime, AWS and marketplaces. It’s their goal to add Amazon Business as that fourth key pillar. With the B2B goods market reaching $2 trillion annually in the US, it’s no wonder Amazon wants to get into the game.
So what is Amazon Business?
Amazon Business is a solution that allows businesses to register business accounts (and their shoppers) to purchase supplies, giving them tools to track spend, gain supplier visibility, access to business pricing and price discounts along with procurement system integrations and dedicated business CSR. These accounts won’t have Prime memberships, however, they will get free shipping on orders that go beyond a certain threshold.
For sellers, this could mean access to a whole new market.
Although sellers do have to register and meet certain eligibility standards, Amazon Business is open to 1P and 3P sellers. As an accredited business seller, merchants will have the ability to create a profile with specific credentials and certifications along with enhanced content (CAD drawings and user guides) to augment listings. Sellers will also be able to tag existing inventory with special business pricing that is only seen by those specific business buyers, so there will be no need to upload a separate set of product SKU’s.
At present, the top five top 5 customer types on Amazon Business include: industrial manufacturing, technology, education, business services and healthcare services.
Amazon Business accounts are currently only available to US-Based companies. There are no indicators that it is limited to US sellers.
Some helpful links:
Check Business Account Availability
sellercentral.amazon.com/hz/b2bregistration
Getting Started as a Business Seller
amazon.com/business-seller
