Amazon Business: how does it work and how much does it cost?

In recent years, Amazon has expanded its presence in the business world through Amazon Business, a platform designed to meet the purchasing needs of businesses and professionals. Thanks to many useful features for those who work, such as invoicing, expense control, and many dedicated offers, this solution offers a wide range of products and services that are worth knowing about.

Creating an Amazon Business account is simple and free. But for a convenient and personalized shopping experience, it is important to explore all the features of the platform. What are the characteristics of an Amazon Business profile, and when is it convenient for companies and freelancers? What changes compared to a normal profile? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Amazon Business, the solution for companies and professionals

Amazon Business is a valid support tool for companies and professionals with VAT number who want to use Jeff Bezos’ marketplace to purchase useful items for their businesses. Entrepreneurs, schools, bookstores, small traders, and multinationals can sign up for free, as mentioned, to the Amazon online store, registering their business account in a few minutes and accessing an infinite catalog of items.

The service is aimed at professionals and companies who need to purchase items at lower prices than those charged by the traditional retail market. The ease of purchase is one of the key points on which the success achieved in the space of a few months by the e-commerce portal in Italy is based, becoming the point of reference for the orders of many companies and thousands of entrepreneurs.

The advantages are several: businesses have hundreds of millions of professional products at their disposal, including IT equipment, office furniture, restaurant kitchen items, stationery, etc. Additionally, there is the ability to create multi-user accounts, allowing multiple employees to access the account and make purchases in a secure and controlled manner.

How does Amazon Business work?

Amazon Business provides access to a marketplace with millions of items, sorted into hundreds of categories to cater to the buying and selling requirements of each professional or company. Here is in detail how the Business version of Amazon works.

Creating internal groups in the same Amazon Business account

Companies that sign up for Amazon Business can add multiple profiles or internal groups in the same account, then define a different or shared payment method for each profile or group.

For example, a multinational can create a marketing group, another for sales, and yet another reporting to the logistics department. By doing so, the account manager monitors the expenditures made by each team.

Integration with the online management system

Each product can be associated with a specific company project. A useful function for justifying your invoices but also for integrating Amazon e-commerce with the online management system.

The possibility of adding project codes or order numbers allows you to make a whole series of important operations easier, including monitoring and approving purchases.

Electronic invoicing

An electronic invoice is issued for orders placed through Amazon Business, with each transaction passing through the Revenue Agency’s Exchange System (SdI). To download it you need to go to My orders and from here to the Purchase analysis section.

Purchase products without an invoice

On Amazon Business you can purchase products without an invoice. Once the order has been completed, you must request it directly from the seller by contacting him via email. Furthermore, the Billing Policies function is made available, through which you can set a restriction on items for sale without a downloadable invoice. When this option is activated, newly searched products will be labeled as Subject to restrictions.

Payment mode

Payment methods accepted by Amazon Business are credit and debit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and others, as well as direct debit to your business account. The administrator can decide whether to set up a specific credit card or direct debit as an individual or shared payment option by following the path Manage your business account > Payment methods > Add your paper.

Product guarantee

Products purchased on Amazon Business are covered by a one-year warranty. In this regard, please note that the two-year legal guarantee is provided only for purchases made by consumers for personal use. If, however, the expense is carried out by a professional or a company, the guarantee decreases to a total of 12 months (compared to 24 for the legal one).

Amazon Business Prime: how it works and the difference with Amazon Prime

The subscription to Amazon Business Prime, which differs from Amazon Prime as we will see shortly, allows companies and entrepreneurs to access fast, unlimited shipping at no additional cost.

Amazon Prime and Amazon Business Prime, as mentioned, are not the same thing. If you decide to switch to a Business account from a private one, you will lose the possibility of using Amazon Prime. As a result, with Business Prime you cannot watch Prime Video or listen to Amazon Music. As the Seattle giant clarifies, Prime is aimed at families and individuals while Business Prime is aimed at companies and freelancers.

Business Prime also offers additional services such as dedicated discounts, delivery planning, and the Amazon Guided Buying tool. Here, in short, are all the benefits and services included.

Progressive discounts

The progressive discounts option allows you to save on products that are purchased more frequently. For example, a school may receive lower prices for laboratory items (scientific scales, meters, microscopes, etc.), while a restaurant gets deep discounts on kitchen items.

Delivery planning

With Amazon Business Prime, a company or professional can decide when to receive the order at the address indicated during the purchase, depending on their needs. The three delivery scheduling options are 1 business day, same day, and expedited delivery.

Amazon Guided Buying

The Amazon Guided Buying tool simplifies the purchasing process by assigning preferences to certain items or sellers on the one hand, and imposing restrictions or even blocks on the other. Thanks to the tool in question, the company increases transparency in purchases, simultaneously reducing the time spent clarifying any doubts employees have about what can be purchased.

Expense visibility

Business Prime members have access to a tool that allows them to analyze spending patterns, set purchasing policies, and create personalized budgets for each division of their company. This tool is called Visibility on Expenses.

How much does Amazon Business cost

Amazon Business offers two main types of accounts: the free Basic account and the Business Prime account, which has an annual cost (the basic one can be subscribed to with Amazon Prime) and offers additional benefits such as free shipping and access to exclusive discounts. Costs can vary depending on your business needs and size, with flexible options to suit different situations. Amazon has thought of various solutions in this sense.

The Amazon Business Prime costs (excluding VAT) for each of the available plans amount to:

• Duo, free only with Amazon Prime (up to 1 user)
• Basic: 49 euros per year (up to 3 users)
• Small: 100 euros per year (up to 10 users)
• Medium: 250 euros per year (up to 100 users)
• Unlimited: 2,000 euros per year (unlimited users)

Note: The Amazon Guided Buying and Spend Visibility features are not available on the free Duo plan.

How to sign up for Amazon Business

Signing up for Amazon Business is open to all businesses, regardless of their revenue. Professionals, small and medium-sized businesses, large companies, restaurants, bookshops, schools, car manufacturers, bars, small traders, cleaning companies, etc. can register. The only restriction concerns private individuals. Furthermore, the contract is dissolved if the company account is used for personal purchases.

To register you need to connect to this address and enter your company email address. If you have already registered on the Amazon marketplace with a business profile, simply enter the same account.

The next step consists of entering your name and surname in the Your name field, then your password (to be repeated a second time in Verify password). The keyword must have a minimum length of 6 characters. Then proceed forward by clicking on the Next step button.

Note: at this stage you accept the conditions of use provided by the service.

At this point, Amazon sends a 6-digit numeric code to the email address entered previously to confirm registration: copy it and paste it under the heading Enter code, then click on the button Create an Amazon account.

Important: if you do not receive any message from Amazon to the email address indicated (also check the Spam/Junk Email folder if necessary), return to the registration screen on the Amazon website and press the Resend link code.

The last step is to enter the company information.

Original article published on Money.it Italy 2024-03-20 19:43:15. Original title: Amazon Business: come funziona, costi e quando conviene