Amazon Business: What are the advantages for companies?

You are in a good entrepreneurial position, have just founded a company, or have been running your established business for years. Everything is going well. But there’s one thing that’s increasingly getting to you. It’s the time you have to spend to keep all areas of your business running successfully. Purchasing is a particularly time-consuming and labor-intensive area in your company. There may still be some uncontrolled growth there. Different vendors, different invoices, and slow price comparisons take up a lot of time and nerves for you and your employees? Then standards are needed. Amazon Business offers you the standards you need for your company’s purchasing department. Find out here how you can integrate Amazon Business into your company and benefit from the numerous advantages.

Table of contents

1. Why is Amazon Business the better choice over a regular Amazon account?
2. How all entrepreneurs can profit
3. Additional benefits and specials for larger companies
4. Who doesn’t need Amazon Business and what are the disadvantages?
5. The biggest disadvantage with Amazon Business
6. The four packages and associated costs
7. This is how the setup works 
8. Conclusion

Why is Amazon Business the better choice over a regular Amazon account?

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With a regular Amazon account, it is possible to place orders for both business and private purposes. However, this type of account is designed more for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. As a founder or long-time entrepreneur, you may quickly reach your business limits with this ordinary account. This is especially true if you place a lot of orders for your business.

The issue here is clearly the requirement for a correctly executed invoice. As an entrepreneur and founder, you want to deduct your purchases from your tax return. But this is only possible if the invoice shows the correct tax. Especially if you purchase goods from a private seller, no tax can be listed at all, or the invoice is somewhat bumpy due to ignorance. With an Amazon Business invoice, you have found a proper solution for this challenge. 

It is also worth taking a look at the price comparison. With an Amazon Business account, you can compare the net prices if you are subject to sales tax. This is not easily feasible with a standard account. In addition, the history and statistics could be confusing and inaccurate if many orders are processed. In addition, other plus points help to make the company’s purchasing department particularly effective.

How all entrepreneurs can profit

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Proper invoices
Properly issued invoices are the be-all and end-all of purchasing. For products that you purchase through your Amazon Business account, you will automatically receive a correctly prepared invoice that includes all mandatory information and VAT.

Clear separation of “business” and “personal”.
If you decide to get an Amazon Business account, you simply keep your original Amazon account. This way, a clean separation between business and privately executed orders are always possible, which is a great relief for accounting.

Special offers for business customers
Some offers are available exclusively to Amazon Business customers.

Purchase on account
Buying on the account is no longer a matter of course everywhere. With Amazon Business, you simply pay your invoice later within a payment period of 30 days. Advance payment or payment immediately after receipt of delivery is therefore no longer necessary.

Tool for easy price comparison
Amazon Business offers you a filter that allows you to view gross and net prices.

Additional benefits and specials for larger companies

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In order for large enterprise purchasing teams to effectively and competently complete their tasks, this requires additional tools and techniques. These include:

Connection of your own merchandise management system
There are two options for your orders: You can use the catalog management within your Amazon Business account to specify preferred merchants or products or connect your own inventory management system. This process saves you some effort and simplifies the process. 

Purchase management by multiple employees
Easily create different employees or entire purchasing groups of employees with Amazon Business and assign them different budgets, rights, and order approvals. This labor-simplifying process can be done with a minimum of 10 users via the Guided Buying tool.

Deposit of additional data
You can easily store additional data on the platform, such as the document number or order number. This makes it easier for you to allocate your invoices and payments later on. This procedure represents a considerable reduction in workload and time savings, especially when a large number of orders are placed.

Procurement analyses
Purchasing at a glance with facts and figures, that’s what the entrepreneur wants. With a minimum of 10 users, the Spend Visibility tool offers you a range of assistance. You can check the purchasing behavior of your employees at any time, evaluate purchases and, if necessary, find out where savings can be made.

Who doesn’t need Amazon Business and what are the disadvantages?

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Whether Amazon Business is the right way for your company’s purchasing department is ultimately up to you. Clearly, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for most companies, but there are also some downsides.

Modern founders and entrepreneurs don’t always feel comfortable with the idea of making their purchases online exclusively through Amazon. After all, the platform has created a real monopoly in the digital shopping world, pushing more and more local providers out of the market. If you are one of those entrepreneurs who like to distribute their purchases among different providers, Amazon Business with its tools is not worthwhile for you, since no evaluations of your total purchases are possible. Even those who do not like bulk goods are more likely to find desired individual goods at individual sellers on site. This would make an evaluation via Amazon Guided Buying superfluous.

The biggest disadvantage with Amazon Business

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Millions of satisfied Amazon Business customers nevertheless complain about a serious disadvantage:

They have no right to object at all. Accordingly, there are no rights to return goods if they are not satisfied. However, this is not Amazon’s responsibility; rather, it is a matter of law. In practice, however, it has been proven that many sellers take back goods as a gesture of goodwill if the customer can provide a plausible reason. All in all, however, the entire order process is fair. 

The four packages and associated costs

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Since every company has a different number of employees to handle the ordering process, the following four different packages are available for you and your company:

Package “Basic
maximum 3 users, cost 70 EUR plus VAT per year

Package “Small
maximum 10 users, cost 200 EUR plus VAT per year

Package “Medium
maximum 100 users, cost 500 EUR plus VAT per year

Unlimited” package
unlimited number of users cost 4.000 EUR plus VAT per year

The carefully selected packages with clear cost transparency make it easy for you to choose a suitable service for the purchasing area of your business.

This is how the setup works 

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Setting up Amazon Business for your business is relatively simple. Generate your Amazon account for Amazon Business. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll soon be reaping the benefits:

1. enter your email address
2. enter your company data: at least name, address, phone number
3. sales tax ID (You can also create an account without entering your sales tax ID. This is voluntary information).
4. deposit your contact data and/or contact data of a contact person
5. after entering all data Amazon checks the creditworthiness. This can take up to 3 business days. 
6. after verification you will receive in the best case a positive mail.
7. now the Amazon Business-Login is ready for you.

Conclusion

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Amazon Business offers you numerous advantages and simplifications. You can keep track of your company’s purchasing processes at all times, as well as the purchasing behavior of your employees. With the correctly issued invoice, the deduction of taxes for your purchases is unproblematic. With purchase on account, you decide when to make your payment within 30 days. The costs are clearly staggered within the framework of 4 possible packages. So you can easily find the right package for your business. In a few minutes, you can create your account and customize it for your business. Regarding the minor disadvantages that Amazon Business brings along with countless advantages, you decide for yourself if the Amazon Business system is a good choice for your business. 

GetMyInvoices fetches all your Amazon invoices automatically and lists them categorically on one interface. This way you can process them as you wish and forward them to your tax advisor or accounting software.