How Amazon Business is Innovating to Help Sellers' Scale Their B2B Business?

Launched in 2017, Amazon Business (ABIN) is a B2B marketplace offering business supplies and products to small and medium businesses such as small offices, entrepreneurs, department stores, Kirana stores, pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, hotels, and restaurants at wholesale prices. 

By providing technologically led, GST-enabled solutions across 99.5 percent pin codes across India, paired with competitive pricing and a vast delivery network, Amazon Business has grown to be a one-stop solution for all business needs with over 30 percent of customers coming from tier II and III markets. 

“ABIN has been enabling micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to accelerate their businesses and increase efficiency by reducing the overall cost of procurement. Businesses from the remotest parts of the country can rely on the platform for their purchase needs. With 15 crore GST products offered by 3.7 lakh sellers, ABIN currently houses India’s largest GST enabled selection. Additionally, we have launched several features - giving businesses to access GST invoices, further allowing them to claim input tax credit using these invoices. That’s an additional 5-28 percent savings opportunity for small businesses,” says Suchit Subhas, Director, Amazon Business

“Over the past 4 years, we have added a host of features like multi-users account, order approval and shared payment method to help businesses increase transparency while procuring business needs. Businesses also have access to sophisticated analytics tools which help them get a detailed understanding of their spending and where they can save further,” he adds.  

Adapting to Changing Consumer Behavior

Amazon Business has been adapting to changing business needs by launching new business-led solutions. It has been helping SMBs in India to run their business more efficiently by helping them tackle their indirect spending to lower the overall cost of procurement. 

“Amazon Business houses a wide selection of products across all categories for all business needs and has made lakhs of sellers available to help customers with multiple quotes. Customers can view multiple offers of a single product for easy price comparison and all purchases are delivered through the trusted delivery experience,” Subhas states.

“We have also assisted MSMEs to ease their GST compliance issues by providing GST-enabled, technology-led solutions built specifically for businesses. Businesses just need to create a free Amazon Business account and enjoy a hassle-free experience. Apart from these ABIN has launched Bill to Ship to, Business PAN, Commercial Store among other innovative features,” he adds.

Innovations Introduced

To help businesses adjust to the new normal and run their businesses remotely in the work-from-home setup, ABIN launched the ‘Bill to Ship to’ feature. Through this feature, Amazon Business has taken a lead in solving this unique customer problem and offered a solution that allows them to claim GST credit on their billing address for their pan-India shipments. This convenient feature allows customers to consolidate the tax credit to one state and make use of GST credit more effectively.

“Over the past year, ABIN has been working in tandem with its seller partners to help businesses cater to their work from home requirements. We recently launched the Commercial Store, offering top products for all business needs across categories like business laptops, networking devices, industrial adhesives, tools and equipment, and safety and security across top brands such as Lenovo, Cisco, Pidilite, Kimberly Clark, Stanley Black and Decker, Kirloskar. The COVID Supply Store similarly is a one-stop for COVID 19 essentials such as PPE kits, masks, face shields, and sanitizers,” he asserts. 

“We launched Business PAN as an additional license type through which MSMEs with an annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh, Education Institutions, and NGOs who do not have a GST certificate can register and avail Amazon Business benefits. These businesses are now able to access an array of benefits like business exclusive deals, bulk discounts, and other business-relevant features which were not available to them earlier,” he adds.  

In 2022, the focus of ABIN will remain on increasing its selection bringing in top brand launches, exciting business deals for bulk purchases, and new innovations for customers.

Strengthening Sellers’ Presence 

Amazon Business provides an additional opportunity on Amazon.in for sellers to scale their B2B business by catering to requirements from lakhs of business customers and growing their revenues. Over and above catering to requirements from MSME customers, its sellers have catered to orders from businesses from across the country including large enterprises such as Mahindra, GE, Tata Group. 

“Our sellers have had the unique opportunity to cater to lakhs of bulk orders from businesses across the country, through features such as ‘Request for Quantity Discount’. Our selling partners view Amazon Business as an important lever to grow their revenues and we have seen the number of sellers selling on our platform grow from 14,000 in 2017 to 4lakh+ in 2021,” he states.

“To help businesses with incremental savings opportunities, we launched MSME Accelerate a B2B focused to help small businesses kick start their operations post the lockdown. Over 3 lakh sellers participated in the last edition of MSME Accelerate, resulting in a +30 percent increase in buying customers and a 35 percent increase in orders participation. The business has exclusive deals and bulk discounts. Additionally, Business Analytics helps small business owners improve their decision making through personalized and robust analytic reports created basis their business spending,” he adds.

How Bright is the Future?

In 2021, ABIN witnessed the exponential growth of over 70 percent Y-o-Y in customer base, making the Indian marketplace of Amazon Business the second biggest after the US. There has been significant growth in registrations from tier II and III, with over 30 percent buying customers and 25 percent orders coming from smaller cities. 

“This year, Amazon Business will continue to remain customer-obsessed to build the right customer experience. We will continue to provide convenient and innovative technology-led purchasing solutions to our business customers and strive to be a one-stop-shop for businesses for their needs. Additionally, the aim is to serve the demands by connecting sellers in a seamless manner. Amazon Business will continue to build on our three strategic pillars of growth – Selection, Pricing, and Convenience,” he concludes.