Addressing business customers via Amazon Business

Amazon has launched its new Amazon Business seller program in Germany. As a result, the marketplace offers participants access to sales tools specifically geared towards business customers, including their own pricing and volume discounts. Another listing in the new range of services is the sales tax calculation service. Amazon Business is now also available to JTL customers. We will briefly introduce you to the new options below.

Amazon Business - what's behind it?

The seller program enables merchants to sell their products and listings to business customers just as easily as they can sell to end customers. After free registration, sellers have access to the creation of business prices, the listing of volume discounts and exclusive offers for commercial customers.

Buyers on the marketplace, on the other hand, benefit from free premium shipping, pay by invoice or the VAT shown using the new VAT calculation service. Vendors with an existing seller account can log in to Amazon Business for free at the following link:

Selling on Amazon Business

Concrete advantages

The advantage for retailers is obvious. If they bidder goods via Amazon Business, they can tap into a new spectrum of business customers. This in turn increases their chances of increasing their sales. The seller program has already had a successful start in the United States – one year after its launch, it had already recorded a billion US dollars in sales. In Europe, Amazon is initially focusing on German sellers for the launch. Here is a brief overview of what to expect:

• Purchase on account for business customers, processed entirely via Amazon, including credit risk assessment
• Improved visibility thanks to special labeling (badge) when Amazon Business is used in conjunction with the VAT calculation service
• Access to a new customer segment of business customers who can be converted into buyers with their own prices and discounts

The sales tax calculation service

Those who use the service to calculate sales tax will in future display net prices to business customers on Amazon. This creates advantages in the battle for the marketplace’s Buy Box. Once activated, the service also automatically generates invoices with proof of VAT for all Amazon customers. To log in to the service, which is independent of Amazon Business, use the following link:

Amazon sales tax calculation service

Use in JTL solutions

Amazon Business is available to all users from version 1.2 of JTL-Wawi. If you would like to use the Amazon Business functionality now, you can do so by joining our pilot program. You only need to make a few settings to set up Amazon Business. Thanks to our long-standing technology partnership with Amazon, integration into JTL-Wawi is very easy.

• As usual, the prices for the customer group and graduated prices can be defined in the item details.
• To use Amazon Business, you must first activate it in Amazon’s SellerCentral.
• Then select the “Marketplaces” tab in the JTL-Wawi menu and follow this path: Amazon -> Account integration -> Account details. There you can then assign B2B customer groups. For example, if you already trade with business customers and want to offer Amazon business customers the same prices, you can assign this customer group to the Amazon account as a B2B customer group.

You can integrate the VAT calculation service into your work processes with similar ease.

• Here you can now enter your tax code for the respective Amazon listing if it differs from the global tax code in your Amazon account.
• Click on the “Marketplaces” button in JTL-Wawi and follow the path Amazon -> Offer management -> Offer details.
• Activates the Amazon VAT Calculation Service (VCS) in the company’s SellerCentral.

From now on, Amazon will create all your invoices automatically and you will find them there in your account. At the same time, invoicing in the ERP will be blocked. This means that you will not be able to send them by email, fax or print them via JTL-Wawi. The purchase order numbers that many companies enter for B2B orders are imported into JTL-Wawi as order attributes.

Conclusion

Amazon Business is an interesting option for merchants who want to expand their customer base conveniently. The marketplace provider has focused on the greatest possible user-friendliness and convenient functions. Our experience with the new seller program and the results achieved so far in the USA are very promising. Amazon.co.uk will soon be integrated into the B2B marketplace in Europe. This will expand the potential trading area internationally.

If you are looking for more information about Amazon Business, we recommend the following page:

Further information on Amazon Business