Amazon Business courts SMBs with a new Business Prime deal

With more than 6 million customers and over $35 billion in annual gross sales, Amazon Business is out to beef up those numbers.

One of its newest strategies is stepping up its focus on small and midsized businesses with an offer to join at a steep discount the Business Prime Essentials membership program, which provides up to three registered buyers perks like free, expedited shipping, extended payment terms on purchases, guided buying services, visibility into spending activity, plus 2% cash back on Amazon Private  Brands purchases and rewards points that can run up to $1,000 each year.

“From the neighborhood cafe to the local firehouse, small and medium-sized businesses are the heart of communities across the country, and Amazon Business is committed to championing their growth,” says Todd Heimes, vice president of Amazon Business.

A big discount on Business Prime Essentials

Amazon’s newest offer is a sharply reduced fee of $9.99 for the first year of membership in Business Prime Essentials — a nearly 95% discount from the usual $179 annual fee. Essentials is a step up from the basic Business Prime program, which provides to a single registered buyer the same perks and features as Essentials, except for the guided buying and spending visibility features.

The basic Business Prime plan costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year. If an Amazon Business account holder is registered for a personal Amazon Prime plan, they can get a “Duo” plan to include Business Prime at no extra charge.

Amazon Business also offers three plan levels of Business Prime above the Essentials plan:

⦁ Business Prime Small at $499 per year for up to 10 users, including all Essentials features plus extended pay-by-invoice terms and additional spend visibility insight.

⦁ Business Prime Medium at $1,299/year for up to 100 users, including more access to spend visibility than available in Small.

⦁ Business Prime Enterprise at $10,099/year for an unlimited number of users, including all Medium features plus upgraded 60-day payment terms.

Amazon Business engages SMBs with education and grants  

For the Business Prime rewards program, Amazon Business provides an online dashboard for checking rewards point balances and rewards records.

Amazon Business is also engaging small and midsized businesses in other ways.

Earlier this year, it launched the Small Business Success Studio as an “on-demand, immersive learning experience for small business owners that offers a collection of engaging educational and instructional materials to help their business grow and prosper.”

Amazon Business also awarded 15 small business owners business development grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 through its Small Business Grant program. The total value of the grants was $250,000.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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