Amazon shows it means business with new online marketplace
Businesses will no longer have to go scouring through big-box stores looking for their office supplies, providing Amazon’s latest venture catches on.
The online retail giant has just announced a new marketplace strictly for businesses, fittingly called Amazon Business. The idea is that businesses can buy all the supplies they need to keep up and running in one place.
Amazon Business is targeted at everyone from offices and manufacturing plants to oil and gas companies, and will offer exclusive prices and discounts for bulk buyers. Products include office supplies, industrial products, lab equipment, food service items and more. Its also promising “hard-to-find items,” such as traffic signs, industrial deep fryers, 55-gallon steel drums, dent pullers and even antibodies(!).
There’s also free two-day shipping for orders over $49, tax exemption, and the option of an Amazon guarantee.
Anyone who uses the regular Amazon will be immediately at home in the new store, which mimics the traditional website. Set up as a multiseller marketplace, Amazon Business allows buyers to compare prices by viewing multiple products from different sellers on a single page. Some items will be tagged with “business-only” prices, while others will offer discounts depending on the quantity ordered.
The move will increase the pressure on office supplies vendor Staples Inc., which is already struggling with competition from retail giants like Best BuyCo., Inc, Costco Corp., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., among others. Staples is currently undergoing a $6.3 billion merger with rival firm Office Depot Inc., and that deal is likely to conclude by the end of the year.
As for Amazon, the new site will help the company gain an foothold in the increasingly competitive business-to-business (B2B) online marketplace, which Forrester Research Inc. says will be worth more than $1 trillion by 2020, accounting for 12 percent of all B2B sales.
For companies looking to sell their wares on Amazon Business, they’re being urged to check out the new seller’s page to learn about getting their products listed.
“It’s only the beginning for this new marketplace,” Prentis Wilson, vice president of Amazon Business, said in a press release. “We will continue to build out features in areas like product support, payments, shipping and pricing.”
Image credit: AlexanderStein via Pixabay.com
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