Tag Archives: Prentis Wilson

Amazon Expanding into Online B2B Marketplace

Amazon Logo courtesy of Bernard Goldbach
Amazon Logo courtesy of Bernard Goldbach

As of Tuesday businesses can stock up on their supplies via a new marketplace launched by Amazon.com, the astoundingly successful online retailer. Amazon will now be a player in this quickly growing market estimated to be valued at over $8.2 trillion in the United States.

The new platform will be called Amazon Business. It will offer supplies to a huge variety of businesses from biotech companies to oil and gas firms. The new marketplace will also offer special pricing and discounts for buying large quantities, two-day free shipping for purchases over $49, tax exempt status and the possibility to receive products with an Amazon guarantee.

The move will help Amazon get a foot in the door of the fast-expanding online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. The online sector of B2B is expected to make up as much as 12 percent of all B2B sales in the US by the year 2020, according to Forrester Research estimates.

Forrester believes that over the next five years a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 percent can be expected.

“Now, business customers have access to products that are only available to businesses as well as business exclusive pricing on a number of products,” Amazon Vice-President Prentis Wilson stated.

In order to better help businesses find what they need Amazon Business will divide its products into categories such as office supplies, IT equipment, janitorial supplies, healthcare products, large industrial equipment, education, and food service supplies.

Now such impossible to find items such as traffic signs, industrial-sized deep fyers, antibodies, 55-gallon steel drums, and even a machine to pull out dents are only a click away.