What It’s Like to Shop at Amazon Business

Chances are, you’ve shopped on Amazon at some point. You may even have made purchases specifically for business items. But if you’re shopping for business items on Amazon and you’re not using the Amazon Business platform, you may be missing out.

Yes, Amazon has an Amazon Business platform specifically for business users to shop for business-related items. But since the shopping experience is a bit different on Amazon Business, we thought we’d walk you through it.

Before actually shopping on Amazon Business, you need to register for an account. This includes providing some information about your business and choosing designations for your account.

You can then manage your account information, sign up multiple users and even organize people into groups. So if you have different departments that make different types of purchases, you can keep them separated. You can even designate different payment methods and spending limits for each group or user.

Amazon Business also allows you to set up approval workflows if you’d like to be notified of purchases or if you want to have yourself or a supervisor approve any or all purchases through the platform.

And if you’re a non-profit or any other business that gets tax-exempt status on purchases, there are options for that on the platform as well.

Then it’s time to shop. On the home page, you’ll see various categories like office supplies, electronics, software and books. You can browse by category or enter the name of the specific product you’re looking for at the search bar at the top of the page.

Once you click on an item, you’ll be taken to the product detail page. This page looks much like a regular product page on Amazon. It includes general information like the price, photos, specification and reviews. You’ll also be able to see whether the item you’re looking at is eligible for free two-day shipping. And you can compare offers of similar products right on that page.

If you have technical questions about the item you’re considering purchasing, you also have the option on the product page to chat directly with the manufacturer. You can do this via either live chat or email.

Pricing is also one of the main reasons businesses choose to sign up for an account with Amazon Business. Many of the prices you’ll see on the product pages are exclusive to account holders. And some manufacturers even offer their products exclusively to business users on the platform. You can also get free two-day shipping on eligible items of $49 or more.

Once you’ve decided on an item, it’s a lot like shopping on regular Amazon or pretty much any other ecommerce store. You just put the item in your cart. And when you’re done shopping, click the Proceed to Checkout button.

To help track your orders and spending, the platform gives you the option of adding a purchase order number to your order during the checkout process.

Then you can choose your shipping location and preferences, including free two-day shipping if your order is eligible for it.

If you’ve set up approval workflows, then a designated person will be contacted via email to approve the order before it goes out.

You’ll also get an email confirmation letting you know when to expect your shipment. And you can log onto the site to see when your packages are scheduled to arrive.

Then, all you need to do is await your business purchases!

Images: Amazon/YouTube

This article, "What It’s Like to Shop at Amazon Business" was first published on Small Business Trends