What Is Amazon Business and How Does It Work?
If you have been shopping on Amazon, you have definitely heard of Amazon Business. You may have noticed some ads telling you to sign up for a free Amazon Business Account. But what is an Amazon Business Account? How does Amazon Business work? What does it have to offer? How do you create an Amazon Business Account? We will answer all these questions in this article to help you learn more about Amazon Business.
An Amazon Business Account is an enterprise-centered account on Amazon specifically meant for business use. It is available for all types of businesses like sole proprietors with just one account, large organizations that have multiple accounts, and other businesses. Amazon Business Account offers a wide variety of helpful features and benefits that provide value for your business. These features help all organizations that sell and purchase business items, regardless of the size of the organization.
There are many benefits which include, integration of a purchasing system, the institution of order and approval of workflow, management of multiple users on your account, request for and receipt of discounts, maintenance of spending limits within the organization, access to a reduction in the prices of business items and services, and many more are available for the registered organizations to enjoy. Also, qualified organizations registered on Amazon Business are free to purchase business items that are tax exempted and access the quantity discounts for the business items and services purchased. Amazon created a full PDF guide explaining Amazon Business if you want more information.
How does Amazon Business Work?
With Amazon Business, there is no physical store where you can walk in, select the business items you want, pay checkout, and walk away with the purchases. Rather, organizations can go to the Amazon website on any device and get exclusive access to millions of available business items and services offered for sale. The comfort Amazon affords its subscribers and the convenience of having a pool of millions of business items in one space makes business operations of the organization easier. There is no learning curve with using an Amazon Business Account as it works, just like the regular Amazon. But the organization is required to register with Amazon Business for an account and sign in whenever purchases and sales are to be made.
After you register for an Amazon Business Account, these are settings and features you should know how to use;
Business Account Settings:
Log in to the free Amazon Business Account you created with your business email address or telephone number and your preferred password. Having signed in from the top right corner of the page, click on the registered name and access a drop-down menu with the details of your account settings. There are additional settings available on your Amazon Business Account like the business setting (where the organization can manage users, add, edit, and delete users, maintain the payment options, create order and workflow approvals, and input the information on tax exemption), the analytics of the business (where accredited personnel of the organization can view in details the line-items of its transactions, reports, and invoices), and the management of preferred vendors (look for vendors and save your preferred and reliable ones).
Search and Shop:
After you log in to Amazon Business, you can find an Amazon search bar at the top of the page. With this Amazon search bar, the organization can easily locate the business items it wants to purchase out of the millions of available products. Simply enter the name of the product or keyword relating to the product desired for purchase. Just like with the regular Amazon, the results could be filtered on the left side of the page. Should the organization be on the Amazon Business Prime membership plan, options as the business seller type and certification would be available for the filter. In the example, I am showing you how to search for an office chair.
Place an Order:
The checkout process for Amazon Business is like that of Amazon (personal Amazon account). Having searched and selected the business item desired for purchase, just add the chosen business item to your cart. What's unique is that you can include whether or not you want the business item delivered on a recurring basis. You can get bulk discounts when you buy products on a recurring basis. After, go to the cart to verify and confirm the payment method, shipping details, and place the order. Then it is super easy to review the order you just placed. Go to the Business Account settings, and either select the order menu option or choose the Business Analytics to see a comprehensive report of the product info. This report includes, shipping details, and seller information.
What does Amazon Business Have to Offer?
There are diverse benefits and features for registered organizations that Amazon Business has to offer. Check out our articles on Amazon Business vs Amazon Prime, Amazon Business Prime explained, or Amazon Business vs Personal Amazon Account.
Some of the things Amazon Business have to offer include:
i. Integration of purchasing system
ii. Management of multiple account users
iii. Institute order and approval workflows
iv. Maintain spending limits
v. Access to a reduction in product prices
vi. Restricted access to the organization’s credit card
vii. Tax Exemption Benefit
Integration of purchasing system:
With this benefit, many buyers are allowed to shop for the organization’s business products without leaving the procurement platform. This works by bringing into one space the Amazon Punch-Out catalog and the mechanism of the purchasing system. This integration, therefore, makes the buyer have all-in-one access and makes the purchasing process a lot easier. Here is a page to learn more about the purchasing system using punchout.
Management of multiple account users
One of the Amazon Business Account benefits is that it allows for the management of more than one user. For an organization, multiple users can be added and managed to ensure prompt delivery of organizational objectives. To manage the multiple user accounts, a resource must be enlisted as one of the administrators or authorizers to have the right to add, edit, and delete accounts.
Institute order and approval workflows
An Amazon Business Account enables the organization to process its orders online and approve the workflow seamlessly. How does this work? A selected level of users in the organization would initiate the order for some business products as needed by the business and have the same approved by a more senior manager. Once the approval is approved through the workflow, the requested order is processed and purchased. This makes the activities of the organization seamless and a lot easier.
Maintain spending limits
The Amazon Business Account places a limit to the amount each authorized person can spend according to the rules set for the organization. This is a huge benefit as it curbs the spending of huge amounts on unnecessary products to the business. Whenever there is a need to spend big, the approving personnel would be one that has the level of authority to make such a call.
Access to a reduction in product prices
Another Amazon Business Account benefit is the opportunity of the purchasing entity to have a reduction in the prices of the business goods and services to be purchased. The negotiation skills of the person buying and the willingness of the seller to sell at a reduced price makes the workings of the business process acceptable on the Amazon platform. Accessing and leveraging the reduced product prices would be of immense benefit to the bottom line of the purchasing entity.
Restricted access to the organization’s credit card
Despite having and managing multiple account users in the Amazon Business account, there is a limit to who can access the credit card of the organization. This is imperative because of adequate credit control. The organization, therefore, gives credit card access to a few users subject to the position held within the business.
Tax Exemption Benefit
For purchasing organizations with tax exemption status, the Amazon Business allows them to apply for the purchase of some appropriate business products from Amazon, Amazon Services, and every other vendor in the Amazon Marketplace using their tax-exempt status. This reduces the cost incurred by these organizations and makes more funds available for the purchase of more business products. The outcome of this is that the organizations report more profit as the operating cost is lessened.
How to create an Amazon Business Account
To create an Amazon Business Account for free, follow these steps:
1. Open the Amazon Business Membership Page
To create an Amazon Business Account for free, you must in a browser on your device; mobile phone, tablets, or PC, open a new tab using the button that says Create Your Free Account Now. This begins the process for creating a free Amazon Business Account.
2. Click the ‘Create a new account’ button
Select the ‘create a new account’ button that appears on the page. Please note that you are to select this because you are creating a new account. Should you be upgrading from your main account account to a business one, there is another button; the ‘convert your account’ button.
3. Enter your full name, work email, and your preferred password
On the page, there is a good deal of requested information on the display. These pieces of information are of the person willing to create the Amazon Business Account for free.
- Input your full name: This is the verifiable name of the person willing to create the Amazon Business Account
- Input your email address: The email address could either be a personal one; for the person creating the business account or a corporate one; for the business itself. If the corporate email address exists and is functional, it is best to use that; if not, a personal email would suffice.
- Enter your preferred password: Passwords are private keys used to lock and access a platform. In this regard, this password must be at least 6 characters. The password must be well known to you and must be easily remembered.
- Re-enter your preferred password: For extra protection, and to ensure you know and mean the previous password entered, you are to re-enter the same.
If the above requested are properly filled, there won’t be a mistake and then you can proceed to clicking the ‘next step’ button.Â
4. Verify your email address by entering the OTP sent
A One-Time Password (OTP) would be sent to the work mail used in registering the Amazon Business Account. This is to verify that you have entrance to the work email used and that you intend to open the account.
Upon receiving the 6 digit OTP, copy the same and paste it in the space requesting for it in the browser used in creating the Amazon Business Account and continue the process.
5. Enter your business information
As soon as the work email has been verified, you would be led to a new page that would request some pieces of information concerning the business. This must be correctly supplied.
- Your Name: The First name of the person willing to create the Amazon Business Account is the name the person is addressed as. This is the person’s original name; as found and verifiable on the bearer’s credentials. The Last name is the Surname; the name of the bearer’s parents or guardians. Both must be entered as requested to ensure the smooth creation of the Business account.
- The Registered Business Name: This is the name the organization or business is registered with. It must be the name that is known and registered with the government and its agencies and not limited to the name the business use in transacting or operations alone.
- The Business Phone Number: This request is about the registered communication line of the business. This number must be verifiable and can either be a mobile telephone number or a stationed telephone number. The cogent thing is that the phone number must be owned by the business seeking registration on Amazon.
- The Street and Number: The Street and Number on the street where the business premises exist as either registered or changed due to a change of location of the business must be supplied.
- The Suite, unit, building, floor (optional): The suite, unit, building, and floor where the business conducts its business must be given. This is not compulsory for the creation of the Amazon Business Account, but is necessary for a complete profile. As much as exist, they should be provided.
- ZIP code: Introduced by the United States Postal Service in 1963, the Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code is a series of numbers used to delineate places for faster mailing services. The Zip Code of the state in which the business exists must be provided.
- City: The location/town in which the business operates must be indicated in this section.
- State: The state where the business operates must be entered as requested in the section.
- The Business Type: There are two options available for your choice; Sole Proprietor and Others.
Once the above-detailed steps had been populated with the correct pieces of information, the Amazon Business Account would be opened for use for free. However, it is imperative to note that it would take about 24 hours for the Amazon verification of the business by either a phone call or an email. After this verification is successful, the Amazon Business Account would be opened and ready for use. I hope this article was helpful. If it was, please leave some comments! Here is another article with a full tutorial on how to create an Amazon Business Account.
