What is Amazon Business and how do I use it?

Not wildly different from how the regular storefront works, Amazon Business works to give customers access to thousands of sellers, often at discounted prices. 

Amazon Business, however, works with sellers who often restrict orders, or don't sell their products on regular Amazon at all, to provide for Amazon Business certified customers. 

For example, Amazon Business sellers can restrict healthcare, industrial, or lab essentials on the regular platform so that the products are a "business-only offer."  

When it comes to pricing, Amazon Business customers also get exclusive discounts as well as an opportunity to sustain savings through some of the following: 

• Deals: As with any deal on Amazon or Amazon Prime, the Business platforms offer daily deals on select items. Like regular Prime, Business Prime also offers exclusive Prime prices. 
• Progressive discounts: A rewards-program concept, Amazon Business offers progressive discounts on products, determined by the company's order-volume over the past calendar year. Beware that these deals are restricted to certain items of certain quantities. 
• Repeat deliveries: You can get a 5% discount on any usual monthly deliveries.
• Negotiation still works: Like with many traditional business supply partnerships, Amazon Business also allows for negotiation. If you have a pre-existing relationship, or fall into a particular customer niche (licensed hairdresser, for example), you can work with the seller directly to negotiate a price not listed on the Business storefront. 

Creating an Amazon Business account may be free, but don't let that fool you. To leverage on major shipping deals, premium analytical tools, and multi-member platforms, you'll need to opt for a Business Prime membership. 

Here are some of Business Prime's unique analytical features: 

• Multi-user accounts: So that one person doesn't take sole responsibility for multi-team orders, multiple people can have access to ordering and analytics. One of the biggest perks of the Business Prime platform, multiple users, and user roles, eliminates guess-work and chaos that can come with big and frequent orders. 
• Spend Visibility: Thanks to AWS' cloud-based system, Amazon Business accumulates and presents data for you using KPI tools and data filters. 
• Guided Buying: This tool guides multi-users exactly to what you want them to buy. To set it up, choose a policy type, product seller, and maybe add a note for buyers. 
• WorkDocs: Basically the Amazon-powered version of GoogleDocs, WorkDocs is a secure space for collaboration and communication.  

Note these three things about pricing before signing up: 

• If you sign up using the same credentials you already have linked with an Amazon Prime account, Business Prime starts at $69 per year. 
• If you sign up for Business Prime Essentials for $179 a year, you get access to Business Prime Essentials, which includes adding up to three members, free shipping, Guided Buying, Spend Visibility, and WorkDocs. 
• You do get a free 30-day trial for Business Prime. 

With an analytical and administrative focus, the multi-user platform is perhaps the biggest benefit of Business Prime. 

As I mentioned, you can even grant users different roles from administrators to buyers, and even finance users. 

But taking advantage of this tool can be pricey. Here are a few things to note: 

• After the initial 30-day trial, a Business Prime membership starts at $139 per year, and requires additional fees for each member you add. 
• Starting at $69 to add just one member, and going up to $10,099 for unlimited membership, you may have to ask yourself if the extra costs are worth any possible savings or the convenience. 

Why would you take advantage? Here are a few key reasons. 

• Remote or hybrid workers can order work from home supplies 
• Office managers can set up recurring orders 
• Multi-brand/ team organizations have control over what supplies they need

Giving multiple users access can be both productive and chaotic. Amazon Business allows users to manage organization purchases by: 

• establishing purchasing guidelines.
• creating groups that have different purchasing permissions.
• setting delivery schedules.
• approval only if someone goes above a set threshold. 

After spending, especially if it's inventory or business oriented, you most likely will revisit whether to reorder or rethink where your money goes. 

The Business analytics tools grant insight to spending visibility beyond the individual, pre-built or custom spend reports, and access to multiple reports. And while viewing your payment and order history is nothing new from Amazon's regular platform, Amazon Business makes those records easy to compare for multiple or individual people via reconciliation reports. 

Filing an expense report can be an entirely different administrative headache, especially when multiple groups and people have purchasing power. Amazon Business skips the middle man and offers the following: 

• Buy now, pay later 
• flexibility with pay by invoice with up to 30-day payment terms
• Possible rewards opportunities with the Business American Express Card 
  

Now for what you've probably been waiting for, how does tax exemption work with Amazon Business? It's simple. If your organization is eligible for tax-exempt purchasing, enroll in the Amazon Tax Exemption Program for your purchases to be tax-exempt on Amazon Business. 

Since Amazon Business is designed for customers to order in bulk, if your order qualifies as a large delivery that needs to be consolidated, it'll be delivered on a pallet to either a receiving dock or even to your doorstep. 

To get started, head to the Amazon Business Website. 

Once you're on the landing page, you'll be prompted to enter an email address. Make sure that it's an email provided by your employer, or one that you can use for the Business platform. You'll also need to enter your name and create a password. 

Note: If you try to join Amazon Business with an email that's already connected to a regular Amazon account, you'll be asked to upgrade that account to an Amazon Business account. If you decline this offer, you'll need to sign up with a different email. 

At this point, Amazon will ask for your business information to help verify it, such as the address shown on your official documents. 

Tip to get verified quicker: Provide your credit card or tax information such as a business or tax ID. 

Within 24 hours of registering,  Amazon will verify your business. From there, you should be good to go. 

Once you're signed into your business account, select "Account settings" from the dropdown menu. From here, you'll see an extra "business settings" option where you can set up your preferences for many of the key features discussed above. 

If you want a detailed report on shipping, product, and seller information, make sure to click the "Orders" menu option directly OR select "Business analytics." 

On your Amazon Business Prime interface, go to the "people" page to manage how many people have access, and to what extent they have control. 

• First, go to "Business Settings" and select "People"
• Use the Actions dropdown menu to change a user's role, move a user to a different group, or create a custom policy or a user (have to get approval before purchasing, for example). 

• To add a user, select "People" and then "Members." 
• Select the person's username (must already be registered), and then select "Add to another group." 
• From there, you can assign the applicable roles in that group and then select "Add to group" to seal the deal. Of course, you can always repeat the process to make further edits. 

Once you get your settings squared away, you're free to browse and shop. As with Amazon's regular website, you can shop by seller credentials, meaning you can shop and support Black, women-owned, and local businesses directly through Amazon. After adding your products to your cart, the check-out process is indistinguishable from Amazon's typical process. 

Make sure that the address is correct and payment information is set up in a way that's easiest for your business.