What is Amazon Business and is it worth it?

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What is Amazon Business?

Everyone in the planet has heard of Amazon these days- the e-commerce giant that can delivery (almost) anything to (almost) anywhere. Many more of us are also familiar with Amazon Prime; the subscription service that gets you next day delivery on thousands of items, as well as lots of other perks, such as Prime Video and Prime Music. Amazon Business is a bit like Amazon Prime for your business, but it also offers many other advantages which will make your life as a business owner a lot easier.

What does Amazon Business do?

Amazon Business offers lots of perks when you shop on Amazon in the same way that Amazon Prime does. For example, you get free one-day delivery on orders over £30, which, if you already shop in this way will come in handy, as well as for those last minute urgent items you may have forgotten.

Where Amazon Business is different, is that it is specifically tailored around the needs of business customers rather than regular shoppers. For example, you can buy items on Amazon Business that are priced with or without VAT. You can also specify to have VAT and purchase order numbers shown on invoices, which will save you time in your business accounting. You can also take the option to pay by invoice, meaning that your purchases won't require payment until 30 days from the invoice date if your business qualifies.

There are other advantages for business owners in shopping using Amazon Business. For example you can set up different accounts for specific individuals or even departments, set spending limits and create purchasing approval systems so that you can approve every order placed by your business and have an audit trail too. You can also view an overview of your company's spending on Amazon Business Analytics.

How much does Amazon Business cost?

Amazon Business doesn't have to cost you a penny. However, if you are also a seller as well as a buyer then you are already paying for the privelege, either 75p per item sold or £25 excluding VAT per month, so it costs nothing to add Amazon Business to your account.

If you already have a personal Amazon Prime account that you operate as an individual you can link the two accounts to enjoy free shipping on selected items. If your business has multiple employees then a fee applies depending upon the size of your company.

Is Amazon Business worth it?

If you or your company regularly purchase products on Amazon then there are a lot of advantages to signing up to Amazon Business. Not least the ability to pay on invoice and add relevant information to make the paperwork side of things much easier. If you are a seller on Amazon then the same benefits apply, and it gives the potential for you to make selling easier and open up your products to a wider audience.