Amazon Business, the e-Commerce giant’s B2B sales marketplace, is on track to post global sales of more than $10 billion over 12 months, if the pace recorded between June and August 2018 does not slow down, the company noted in a blog post.
That number is well ahead of the cumulative $1 billion sales mark reached before the end of the first year of Amazon Business, in 2016.
The B2B marketplace offers millions of products from thousands of merchants that pay Amazon a commission for each sale. Products sold include office supplies, electronics, computers, software and books as well as supplies for health care, hospitality and construction. Third-party sellers make up more than 50% of the $10 billion in global sales, according to Amazon.
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The business now operates in eight countries, including the U.S., UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan and India. In the U.S., customers include large schools and hospitals, more than half of all Fortune 100 companies, as well as local governments.
Amazon’s venture into the B2B market challenges Staples Business Advantage and Costco Business Center, as well as smaller specialty distributors. By 2020, 12.1% of the $9.39 trillion B2B e-Commerce market will be online, according to Forrester Research.
The platform has grown significantly since it was founded in 2015, replacing the e-Commerce giant’s previous B2B sales program called Amazon Supply. In 2017, Amazon rolled out Business Prime Shipping, a paid annual program that offers unlimited two-day shipping on select items. For businesses, the perk is more expensive than its $119 per year consumer-facing counterpart: $499 for up to 10 users, $1,299 for up to 100 users and $10,099 for more than 100.
In addition to the two-day shipping, Amazon Business comes with business-only pricing and discounts for some bulk orders, integration with corporate procurement software, and order management designed to let managers see and approve orders, and automatically tally them into spending reports.
