With an aim to provide MSMEs in India a single platform for all their procurement needs, Amazon Business launched as an online marketlace in September 2017 and has since snowballed into a business with a customer base that has increased by a whopping 103% year on year.  Amazon Business is a B2B marketplace that offers frequently purchased business supplies and products at wholesale prices to small and medium businesses including small office and home offices, educational institutes, kirana stores, hospitals, hotels, and restaurants.  Launched with an aim to empower Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) across the country, Amazon Business is helping MSME’s in India to run their business more efficiently by assisting them in tackling their indirect spends which in turn brings down the overall cost of procurement.
 

Customers are split across focus verticals like IT, telecom, services, education, hospitality, and healthcare and can buy from a vast selection of product offerings across all major categories like IT peripherals, home appliances, kitchen appliances, office furniture, office supplies, cleaning essentials and much more. Apart from this, Amazon Business has also launched stores relevant to the different contextual needs of businesses such as COVID-19 Supplies store, Work from Home (WFH) store, and Distance Learning store. Stores like COVID-19 store have helped SMBs leverage a single consolidated destination to access a wide range of products to cater to their various needs of creating a safe work environment and ramping up operations.
 

With the mantra that ‘customer is king’, Amazon Business has extensively worked with its seller network to not just make the right set of products available but also to facilitate competitive prices and discounts for the customers both on single unit and bulk purchases.

Amazon Business customers enjoy multiple benefits such as, an all inclusive one stop shop for entire business related purchase needs with merchandise stores catering to all the requirements of MSMEs to make discovery and purchase easier. Moreover, Amazon Business has managed to reach every corner of the country by covering over 99.8% pincodes, so customers can be assured of fast and convenient delivery. Customers can save up to  28% on business purchases by claiming GST input tax credit on over 16 cr GST enabled selection available on Amazon Business. Customers also receive exclusive prices and bulk discounts on lakhs of products and can check multiple offers from a variety of sellers on a single page so that they can make an informed choice. To help businesses with their procurement patterns, Amazon Business also provides Insights into business spends and analysis with customized reports. Apart from this, doorstep delivery via Amazon, easy returns, replacements and refunds for damaged or defective goods, customer service for registered business customers,  and Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee make Amazon Business the ideal choice for business owners.

All of these benefits have enabled Amazon Business to scale up exponentially. Some facts at a glance:

•  156% sales growth year on year
• Over 16 crore products with GST invoice for input tax credit
• 3.7L sellers to cater to all business needs of customers
• Top performing categories include electronics, home, kitchen, wireless, and apparels

While Amazon Business has seen a steady rise in sales, the Covid-19 pandemic has positively changed the course of the business. The reputation as the single source destination for all kinds of business procurement, has led to a sudden spike in customers and demands since the Covid-19 outbreak. Amazon Business has seen a 46% increase in average monthly order volumes and 45% increase in average monthly customer  registrations across cities post lockdown compared to earlier.

While all major cities have seen a spike in order volume, Amazon Business has also seen surprising uptick in smaller towns and rural areas. Khanauri (Punjab), Bhuran (Haryana), Aduthurai (TN), Dwarhat (Uttarakhand), Koikuntla (AP), Kurwai (MP) are some of the cities that have seen a huge spike in orders on Amazon Business.  The increase in demand has been met with more sellers wanting to leverage the opportunity and grow their business by selling to B2B customers. This in turn has led to 50% more seller launches in post lockdown phase vs. pre Covid-19. This has helped both customers and small scale businesses keep their wheels turning thereby creating a win-win situation.

As we forge ahead, Amazon Business promises to keep up this pace to work with customers and businesses to build an ecosystem of ease and comfort with an aim to make scaling up a convenient and smooth procurement process for all.