Tamebay Exclusive: Amazon Business Update

Amazon will announce today that Amazon Business has launched a new set of features designed to better serve the procurement needs of businesses of all sizes.

Amazon will be making a big splash in the press today about their new features for business customers (which you can read about below) but we were able to exclusively talk to Amazon an ask about what matters to you as an Amazon merchants. We asked why you should be excited about Amazon Business and how can it help you grow your sales:

Amazon Business Merchants have seen a 50% increase in B2B Sales

Amazon told us that half of all units sold on Amazon Business are from third party businesses, with more than 30,000 sellers in the UK having accessed the Amazon Business Seller feature set.

Amazon also revealed to Tamebay that sellers who have adopted the VAT Calculation Service have on average increased their B2B sales by more than 50% within the first month – it’s the value of registering (for free) as an Amazon Business seller and getting enhanced visibility with the Amazon Business badge displayed against your products. Plus you also get a better chance of winning the Buy Box as your offers will be displayed net of VAT.

We expect this sales uplift to increase as Amazon roll out their new features to attract more business buyers. Plus Amazon have released Alexa for Business in the US which will tie even more companies into the Amazon ecosystem.

Global sales opportunities

Amazon Business is continuing to expand globally, meaning that sellers on the Amazon Business Marketplace are growing their sales by reaching new B2B customers around the world, helping to boost their export sales whilst offering features such as business-only pricing, quantity discounts and exclusive business offers.

Germany is naturally a key market for UK retailers but you could also sell to India, Japan and the US in addition to UK based business buyers.

What type of products sell on Amazon Business

The products you’d expect to perform well

Amazon Business offers more than one hundred million products in a wide range of categories and as you might expect these include the types of product you’d typically associate corporate customers purchasing:

• Laptops, office supplies and storage solutions, through to office furniture and commercial grade printers
• Industrial safety and contractor grade power tools through to thermal imaging cameras
• Janitorial supplies and cleaning products through to industrial grade high pressure washers
• More than 50,000 types of lab supplies, including microscopes, test tubes and high-speed centrifuges

The type of products you may be surprised to perform well

What you might not expect is the huge range of other products that are being sold on Amazon Business, some of the best performing categories in the top 20 include

• Health & Personal Care
• Lawn and Garden
• Apparel
• Grocery
• and Home Entertainment

Are my products suitable?

It’s important to remember that whilst businesses will obviously buy office supplies and the like, they are equally likely to make purchases as corporate gifts, kitchen appliances for the office canteen, groceries for meetings, incentives for staff and businesses such as media companies could buy just about anything perhaps for use as film props. Don’t think that because you don’t sell office supplies that your items aren’t suitable to sell on Amazon Business because there’s a high chance they will.

Remember it doesn’t cost anything to sign up and sell on Amazon Business so you’ve nothing to lose.

Sign up to cash in from Amazon Business sales

If you already sell on Amazon then signing up to sell on Amazon Business is simple and free. It gives you access to a ton of features that business buyers will love including the ability to offer products and prices available to business customers only.

“The Amazon Business Marketplace provides the opportunity for sellers to reach new business customers in the UK and around the world. Whether you sell traditional B2B products such as office equipment, industrial safety gear and cleaning supplies, or products such grocery items, health and personal care and home entertainment, there is almost certainly a business out there that will be interested in your products.

By becoming an Amazon Business seller, you can grow your B2B sales whilst offering new features tailored to business customers, such as offering quantity discounts, displaying VAT-exclusive prices and providing VAT invoices for all customers enrolled in our free VAT Calculation Service.”
– James Wilson, Head of Business Development, UK Marketplace, Amazon

What’s new for Amazon Business buyers?

Amazon Business combines more than one hundred million business-relevant products with a set of unique features, such as VAT-exclusive pricing, Amazon Business Analytics and Free One-Day Delivery. It’s everything that customers know and love about Amazon, but for business.

After launching in the UK in April 2017, Amazon Business now serves more than 90,000 companies of all sizes – from sole traders and small businesses to large multi-national organisations and FTSE 100 companies, as well as institutional buyers like universities, hospitals and non-profits.

The new features Amazon will announce today include:

• Pay by invoice

  Pay on net 30 day terms to help improve cash flow.

• Business Invoice

  Improved search and filter features now allow business customers to quickly find offers from Amazon and Marketplace sellers who display net prices and offer VAT-inclusive invoicing for download.

• Catalog Curation

  Enabling businesses to configure the Amazon Business catalogue according to their procurement policies. Administrators can define approval criteria and set certain or restricted categories and products.

• Coupa Open Buy

  Coupa Customers now have direct access to millions of Amazon Business products simply by using the search bar within the Coupa interface.

As well as the new features announced today, Amazon Business offers the following features to help change the way businesses purchase products, such as:

• Free One-Day Delivery

  Businesses can get the products fast and free on qualified orders of £30 or more.

• Visibility and control

  Add a Purchase Order (PO) number to orders, add multiple users to business accounts, set spending limits, enable purchasing approval workflows and gain visibility of expenditure with Amazon Business Analytics.

• Integrated into procurement systems

  Enabled on leading e-procurement platforms including Coupa, JAGGAER and SAP Ariba.

• Detailed transaction data on commercial card purchases

  Track and reconcile business purchases with line-item detail on every Amazon Business purchase made with a Visa Commercial Card issued by Barclaycard, Citi, HSBC or Lloyds Bank.