Amazon Business – B2B e-commerce with the shopping experience

• Launch in Germany December 2016 with B2B marketplace Amazon Business
• The starter range comprises 100 million products
• 5 million articles on the manufacturing industry and trade
• The number of B2B merchants is not yet known
• The products are offered directly from Amazon
• B2B sales in the US have been running since 2015 – more than 45,000 retailers are online
• External trading partners can make their goods available to Amazon’s business customers (not only manufacturers and wholesalers)

Amazon Business Vendor

In this program, Amazon plans directly with the supplier and lists the products in its own stock. Amazon is in principle a wholesaler, which resells the products to business customers via the Amazon Business Platform:

• Invitation only by Amazon
• Suitable for major manufacturers, well-known brands and selected wholesalers
• The supplier is responsible for the product listing selections
• Amazon determines the sales price
• Shipping by Amazon Prime
• Special marketing opportunities
• Higher sales in the vendor program, similar to the B2C segment

Amazon Business Marketplace

In this program, the products are sold by the supplier directly via the B2B platform:

• The provider determines the prices personally
• Independent determination of product listings
• Total control of sales activities
• No contract negotiations with Amazon
• Direct contact with the customer
• Amazon Business is only the provider of the infrastructure
• Variable sales fees and monthly royalties

Amazon Business Marketplace with FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon)

• Sales via the Marketplace with shipping through Amazon FBA
• Products are the property of the seller
• Use of Amazon warehouses

Product information differs in B2B and should therefore be adapted to individual needs. Complex products exist in the B2B sector and B2B buyers tend to be more fact-oriented and critical for operational reasons; they like to use videos, product brochures with instructions or product evaluations prior to purchasing. B2B content requires a high degree of individualisation. In this case, it is important to know the search behaviour of decision-makers and business customers and to cover them with a wide range of keywords.

In both B2C and B2B, the purchase process starts with the necessity or need. Only the search for information and the evaluation of alternatives in the B2B segment is more formal and structured or more experienced. It is extremely important to know the difference between the influencing factors and processes and to integrate them into the content.

Authorized persons or groups purchase for the company:

• Savings for B2B customers through quantity discounts
• Amazon Business Accounts include pricing and volume discounts on millions of products in a wide variety of categories
• Free delivery within 2 days of a purchase priced 29€ or greater

Automated approval processes for purchasing managers and administrators:

• Overview of all participants and groups regarding the approval process defined in Amazon Business Backend
• Administrators can define permissions… As soon as the order total exceeds the limit, the order is automatically forwarded for approval
• Approvals can be determined individually for each person in the company from a wide variety of departments

Define payment methods:

• Administrators can define common and individual payment methods

Multi-user accounts:

• Several authorised persons for one account with different access codes

Increased efficiency through automated processes such as receiving invoices or creating payments:

• System Integration Payment
• ERP-system integration
• Supplier consolidation
• Business-only selection

The answer to this question depends on the observer’s point of view: On the one hand, the effects are very small; however, on the other hand, they are gigantic. Why are they small? Amazon itself can best answer this question, as the customer journey from Amazon B2C to B2B can be easily adapted.

• How does the B2B buyer want to be treated – keyword service/loyalty
• What is the purchasing process in general?

One thing is certain, B2B buyers are mature B2C customers and understand the positive and negative aspects of the process, alongside the advantages and benefits of online shopping. Consumerization is the technical term among B2B experts. In other words: the customer in B2B e-commerce also demands a unique shopping experience and professionalism as they have previously encountered this from the B2C area. For Amazon, B2C customers are also B2B customers. They increasingly want to experience the advantages of fast shopping and will expect, in the near future, that they can shop in the evening hours from various manufacturers, wholesalers and vendors.

With Amazon Business, manufacturers and wholesalers can open new customer groups that could not be reached by closed systems. It was only a matter of time before Amazon would offer this unique B2C buying experience on the business side, in Germany as well. Marketing participants who pick up business customers similar to the B2C segment and offer them purchasing as easily and automatically as possible are most likely to succeed. The participants in the B2B market are buyers, decision-makers and managing directors. Purchasing decision-makers look for suitable manufacturers, dealers and service providers for their B2B orders every month. No brand manufacturer should miss the trend. It is recommended to adapt the product range to the B2B sector at an early stage.

A large number of different B2B products requires an ecosystem that plays out the relevant suppliers quickly and reliably. In other words: B2B buyers can only be convinced with sophisticated product search engines and a smooth connection to the internal systems.

• 94% of business customers prefer to conduct prior online research before making a purchase in the business environment

Amazon Business offers new opportunities in B2B trade as well as typical solutions that provide business customers with a high degree of automation.

To be eligible for the promotion, you must have an Amazon Business account. Once logged in with the account, all offers are displayed under Business Deals. Here is the distinction between current, future and expired offers:

• Business deals can be reserved for up to 10 copies per customer
• All other special offers can only be reserved for one copy of the respective article
• Actions have a fixed period of time

The fact that product search on the internet is increasingly taking place in the B2B sector and that the purchasing behaviour of B2B customers is increasingly being adapted to that of B2C customers proves that the B2B market should not be underestimated and that manufacturers should start planning now. There is no better test run than Amazon Business to identify the B2B market that suits you best to manage products and campaigns.

The B2B platform offers an optimal infrastructure for B2B vendors due to the high level of automation processes and the direct communication option (live expert) between supplier and customer. In this context, entire product portfolios can be marketed to a large extent, thus reaching both small and medium-sized companies as well as groups of companies (desktop purchasing). Not only industry products, but also consumer goods are in great demand at Amazon Business, and exciting questions are arising here:

• Does the B2B buyer really save money when shopping on Amazon Business?
• If special SKUs are released or created, or these are automatically created for all SKUs
• What is the handling of shipping within the EU or worldwide?
• How highly automated can the scaled prices be, for example, uploaded with feed lists?

Amazon Business offers special logins for the B2B area as well as a special view similar to the B2C and shows all categories, especially for Amazon Business users. A further benefit arises from the fact that external trading partners can make their goods available to Amazon’s business customers. So far Amazon has been negotiating with manufacturers and wholesalers via the former B2B portal Amazon Supply, and many business customers are already shopping in the classic B2C platform of Amazon. It’s only a matter of time before the B2B business is completely settled where the target group is. The advantages of being an Amazon Business Seller:

• Access to all Amazon customers + business customers from small businesses to large corporations to institutional buyers
• Ability to extend product offerings to business customers
• Increased visibility of business offers and lower fees for bulk sales
• No additional fees
• Access to shipping through Amazon and standard-activated Europe-wide sales
• Special offers from qualified Amazon Business resellers for increased visibility
• Possibility for business customers to offer special prices, quantities and discounts
• Exclusivity: Vendors can distribute products exclusively to business customers
• Increased sales opportunities through purchase on account
• Invoices can be automatically generated for all orders and made available to the customer
• Automatic display of net prices, where sellers can display and calculate net prices for business customers throughout Europe

Amazon Business promises a lot and has kept its promises thus far. Exciting changes are constantly occurring, so stay tuned!