Amazon hardly needs an introduction to online shoppers and business retailers. Meanwhile, Amazon has innovated Amazon Business to permit business owners to access the vast retail network of providers. This will widen the scope of easy ordering and stunning discounts.
As a business owner, should you join Amazon Business? Before that, you should be aware of Amazon Business accounts. What is an Amazon Business account, by the way? Apart from that, you might be curious to decode its perks and downsides too.
We have covered all of them for you. Let’s reveal what an Amazon Business account offers its pros and cons.
A Quick Guide to Amazon Business
Amazon is not only the destination for shoppers or buyers. Over 5 million businesses have joined Amazon to fulfil their requirements and provide user-friendly shopping experiences. So, what is an Amazon Business account?
Amazon Business offers exclusive facilities to its registered businesses, regardless of size. Now, every registered business can assign users. Then, those users can purchase business supplies on Amazon on behalf of their employers. Every company can allow some specific users to enable the required purchases.
On the other hand, the main administrator can authorise the overall activity. For example, they can add authorised users or remove them if required. Additionally, they can manage the following activities:
- Manage payment methods
- Handle delivery addresses
- Approve networks
- Report options as per the business demands
Amazon Business will help businesses source a wide range of essentials, from IT equipment to janitorial supplies, all under one roof. Additionally, it’s useful for all businesses, irrespective of their sizes.
Cost Structure of Different Amazon Business Tiers
An Amazon Business account sign-up can result in convenient business supplies to your business location. In addition, your business will get fast business shipping, quick and free delivery, alluring discounts, cashback offers, and more.
So, how much must you pay for an Amazon Business account sign-up? Signing up for an Amazon Business account is completely free. Businesses need not pay a dime to shop on Amazon Business. However, this doesn’t apply to Amazon Business Prime Shipping.
You must pay a nominal fee for Amazon Business Prime Shipping. Here’s what you should know about Amazon Business Prime’s costs:
- Essentials: This membership costs you $179 a year. Additionally, it supports up to 3 users at the same time.
- Small: This Amazon Business Prime is suitable for small businesses as it supports up to 10 users. A small membership costs $499 per year.
- Medium: Do you want to allow up to 100 specific users to order business supplies from Amazon Business Prime with advanced shipping and other facilities? If yes, then check out the Medium membership from Amazon Business Prime. This charges $1,299 per year.
- Enterprise: This specific Amazon Business membership is suitable for big-size businesses. You can purchase this to enable over 100 users to order from Amazon. However, this membership is expensive and charges $10,999 per year.
Conversely, Amazon lets its users share individual Prime memberships with business accounts. However, the vice versa is not true. One can’t use an Amazon Business account to shop their equipment. In addition, users can resell products shipped directly to another user through Amazon Business Prime shipping.
Pros and Cons of Amazon Business Accounts
This query might be bothering you. However, the pros and cons of an Amazon Business account will help you understand whether you need a membership. Let’s start with the Amazon Business account benefits first:
Potential Benefits of an Amazon Business Account
An Amazon Business account allows businesses to get more personalised search and business supplies. Additionally, you can get added perks, such as
1. Personalised Shopping Assistance
Amazon Business account sign-up offers an AI that helps you customise your shopping experience. For example, the AI will find products that fit your business needs.
2. Fast Business Prime Shipping
Forget waiting days for your product to arrive. With Amazon Business Prime Shipping, you can get free shipping and same-day, one-day, and two-day delivery facilities.
3. Access to Amazon Business Card
Another sparkling benefit of an Amazon Business account is an Amazon Business card. Now, you can decide whether to pay 0 interest on US purchases or get rewards with Amazon Business cards.
4. Huge Discounts
Generally, a business orders supplies in bulk. In that case, Amazon Business accounts can get lucrative discounts on every bulk order. Therefore, you can get exclusive business pricing via Amazon Business accounts.
5. Access to Exclusive Items
As a part of Amazon Business account benefits, you can now access business-only products on Amazon. If you are a normal buyer, you won’t find and order products like antibodies, traffic signs, dent pullers, etc. However, Amazon won’t say no to an Amazon Business account holder.
6. Multiple Business Accounts
You can open a single Amazon Business account and manage everything. Otherwise, the Amazon Business account sign-up allows administrators to add more users to control payment methods, delivery mode, etc. In case of handling multiple accounts, you can build approval workflows for more control.
7. Buying Analytics and Price Comparison
Do you want to view individual and overall extents spending activities and total costs? Well, the Amazon Business account approves of that. You can also easily compare and distinguish between different products and their prices on the Amazon Business interface. This saves you from unnecessary time wasted on manual comparison charts.
8. Ability to Place Tax-Exempt Purchases
An Amazon Business account lets you place tax-exempt purchases. Therefore, you can easily handle tax exemption permissions across your business or enterprise.
9. Easy Order Tracking
Input your reference or order numbers for order tracking, account reconciliation, and reporting. The Amazon Business account also allows you to purchase and finance orders via a credit line.
10. Convenient Customer Support
Is an Amazon Business account good? It is, and we can say that for its customer support. The customer support executives will assist the registered business right away.
Cons of Amazon Business Account
Is an Amazon Business account worth it? We can’t conclude without shedding light on the disadvantages of owning an Amazon Business account. Here are some noted cons of an Amazon Business account:
1. Recurring Fees
An Amazon Business account sign-up can be expensive for businesses. The higher tier you choose, the more you need to pay towards Amazon Business. Hence, you must conduct extensive research to find a suitable membership.
2. Shrinkage in Product Margin
Amazon Business can charge you up to 15% in fees if your products don’t belong to business items. Therefore, this will decrease the profit margin for businesses if they want to resell them.
3. Extreme Competition
As you already know, the Amazon business interface lets you use different analytics tools to utilise most of its resources. On the other hand, every registered business gets the same opportunity under the Amazon Business initiative. Hence, you should have extra skills and luck to outperform competitors on the same platform.
4. Bound to Follow Amazon Business Rules
Undoubtedly, an Amazon Business account allows your business to work on revenues and increase them. However, you might have to compromise control over your business. And, that’s one of the cons of an Amazon Business account. You must follow Amazon’s Business policies. Otherwise, Amazon can remove your store.
5. Amazon Gains Shoppers
The main problem with Amazon Business is that you don’t have control over customer communication. In other words, Amazon has specified how businesses can communicate with end customers.
You can’t convince your customers why they should opt for your products only. So, customers can compare prices and other factors and find your replacement on Amazon. Amazon gains customers, and we can’t tell the same for you.
Steps to Create an Amazon Business Account
An Amazon Business account sign-up process is comparatively easy. Here’s what you need to follow:
- Navigate to business.amazon.com and select the ‘Create a free account’ option.
- Afterwards, enter your name and email address. Then, curate a password.
- Next, the page will ask for your business name, business phone number or email address, etc.
More or less it might take up to 10 minutes to complete. Additionally, you can add more users and categorise them into different groups. You can also manage approval workflows for the required control and supervision.
Is Amazon Business Account Worth it?
This ultimate decision depends on your business needs. With lots of benefits and tools, an Amazon Business account offers improvement in your busing workflow. Additionally, you can save time and money on your orders. So, review Amazon Business accounts and corresponding facilities to get the best value for your money.
