Amazon Business Guide
The Amazon Business Guide is a comprehensive guide that will help you understand the various aspects of Amazon Business to assist you in identifying if Amazon’s fulfillment strategies are the right solution to solve your distribution problems.
Benefits of Amazon Business
Business Only Prices
You get access to price discounts from Amazon on more than five million products, including quantity discounts on multi-unit purchases.
Multi-User Accounts
Once you create a free Amazon Business account, you can connect your entire team and create purchasing groups to match your organization structure.
Business Prime
Subscribers get free same-day, one-day, or two-day shipping on eligible items
Reporting and Analytics
You can track and monitor your spending with handy charts.
Increase Control Over Business
Customize your Spending approval workflows and set individual spending limits to better manage your organization's purchasing on Amazon Business.
Drawbacks of Using Amazon Business
Lack of Control
While you’ll be reaching a truly vast customer segment on Amazon, all of these people are actually Amazon’s clients, not yours. You won’t have access to insightful data about your customers nor be able to market directly to them.
Marketplace fees
Amazon Business is a pay-to-play channel. You will incur monthly subscription fees, referral fees, and commissions.
Competition
There are countless merchants on Amazon Business so you might end up facing steep competition. Besides, selling on Amazon promotes product comparisons, which may not be ideal for every business.
Not for Everyone
Before selling your products on Amazon Business, you must know your numbers. As a rule of thumb, Amazon is not well suited for commodity, bulky, or low-margin products. Their FBA services favor smaller products, pushing out many businesses with bulky items or requiring them to ship direct.
How to Start Selling on Amazon Business
1. Register to Sell on Amazon
Register for a Professional Selling Account on Amazon.com. For existing sellers, you can add Amazon Business features easily through Seller Central.
2. Create a Business Profile
Tell your unique story using our Profile Editor. You can add your quality certifications and diversity credentials for discerning business customers.
3. Set Up Your Products
Use Amazon’s simple listing tools to add your entire catalog and the Enhanced Content feature to display additional product information to your customers.
4. Start Selling
Reach millions of business customers already shopping on Amazon.
Pricing
The cost to sell on Amazon depends on your selling plan, product category, fulfillment strategy, and other variables.
Selling Plans
Individual Plan
$0.99/item sold + additional selling fees
If you sell less than 40 items a month
If you don’t need advanced selling tools or programs
If you’re still deciding what to sell
Professional Plan
You sell more than 40 items a month
You want access to APIs and more selling reports
You want to sell with programs like Launchpad and Handmade
You want to sell products in restricted categories
Product Category
Depending on what you sell, your products will be subject to costs such as referral fees, fulfillment fees, and other costs. Each product category has different rates for referral fees, fulfillment fees, and other costs.
Fulfillment Strategy
Depending on what your distribution strengths are, fulfillment fees depend on whether you plan to ship products yourself, or use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to handle your logistics and offer Prime shipping for your products. The primary costs associated with FBA are Fulfillment Fees (non-apparel & apparel) and Storage Fees.
Other Variables
Other costs that are commonly involved in FBA are inventory fees, high-volume listing fees, refund administration fees, return processing fees, and stock removal fees.
Cost Estimation Tools
Cost Calculator
The cost of selling on Amazon.com varies based on your product characteristics, fulfillment method, optional services, and other factors. By visiting this link, you can use the Amazon Sales Margin Calculator to generate a rough estimate of your per unit sales margin.
Estimate FBA Fees
By visiting this link, you can calculate your FBA fees by entering your fulfillment costs and see profitability comparisons between your fulfillment method and FBA.