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When you started your business, you set out to take an opportunity from vision to reality. More than likely, your vision didn’t include spending hours a week buying supplies and managing inventory. But, for many small business owners, keeping a business stocked takes precious time and energy away from serving their customers.
Buying supplies doesn’t have to be so time consuming. Amazon Business saves small businesses time and money by combining the convenient shopping experience of Amazon with a host of free features that make it easier to buy for your business.
Here are five ways you can make purchasing more efficient for your small business with a free Amazon Business account.
1. Keep your home and work purchasing separate
Many of the small business owners we talk to are already using Amazon.com to buy for home. Wanting the same benefits—like fast, free shipping—many business buyers use their personal Amazon account to buy for work. This can seem like a simple option, especially if you are a sole proprietor, until it’s time to separate your expenses, with taxes for example. Bookkeeping and tax write-offs can get tricky when you mix business purchases with personal ones.
A free Amazon Business account lets you keep your work and personal purchases separate so you can have a clear picture of what you’re actually spending on your business. You can easily switch between your Amazon and Amazon Business accounts on your desktop or mobile app. And when tax time comes, or when it’s time to reconcile your books, you’ll save time by having your work purchases all in one place.
2. Shop suppliers with business-only selection and pricing
To keep your business running you need the right supplies, and you need to minimize costs. But you don’t have time to shop multiple locations, compare products, and negotiate prices. Amazon Businesses simplifies buying by bringing together in one location hundreds of thousands of sellers who offer products across multiple categories tailored to businesses.
When you shop through Amazon Business, you get access to business-only selection and pricing that you don’t get on Amazon.com. Quantity Discounts start at just two units on select products. If you don’t see a quantity discount for an item you need, you can request one from multiple suppliers. Business Prime, a membership designed for businesses and only available on Amazon Business, unlocks more savings through Progressive Discounts—tiered savings on the items you buy the most.2
To get your business stocked up, a good place to start is with our Business Plus selection—pre-selected products across common categories for businesses. These products have 4+ Star Ratings from business buyers like you, with business-only prices on select items. Find what you need all in one place for your:
Breakroom, like beverages, snacks, paper products, and first aid supplies
Office, like paper, electronics, office and mail supplies
IT peripherals, like monitors, computer accessories, and point-of-sale
Maintenance, repair, and operations, like electric, heating, lighting, hand tools, and hardware
Also find hundreds of millions of products for your unique type of business, whether you run a restaurant, auto shop, salon, daycare, medical or dental office, lab, nursery, pet store, or any other business.
Small businesses can also cut costs on shipping and delivery. All orders of $25 or more of eligible items qualify for free shipping, and when you sign up for Recurring Delivery on eligible items, you can save up to 10 percent. Business Prime members get unlimited free two-day, one-day, or same-day shipping on over 100 million eligible items.
3. Automate your shopping, ordering, and delivery
As your business expands, your supply needs increase and become more complex. Having a process you can automate across shopping, ordering, and delivery can help you better manage your growth.
While you’re shopping, our machine learning technology powers intelligent search to give you personalized recommendations to cut down the time it takes to find what you’re looking for.
When it’s time to order, tap into tools that let you set it and forget it. Similar to Subscribe and Save on Amazon, Recurring Delivery is available through Amazon Business on eligible items. Set up your order once for automatic delivery, eliminating stock-outs and reducing last minute trips to the store. Or, create Reorder Lists in your account so you can reorder multiple items with just a few clicks rather than spend time searching through your order history.
4. Adjust to the needs of your business
Your business is unique, so you’ll be more efficient if the way you shop, your delivery schedule, and your payment methods are tailored to your needs.
If your work frequently takes you away from your desk, ordering supplies through your mobile device will keep you working while you’re on the go. With the Amazon mobile app you can buy from Amazon Business from wherever you are, get notifications on your device when your order is shipped, and approve orders placed by your team members, all from the palm of your hand.
If your business has unique hours, you can set up shipping and delivery options that are convenient for you. You can also consolidate your orders into fewer deliveries to save even more time. You can set your business hours and holiday schedule on your Amazon Business account and add delivery instructions to help drivers get your supplies to the right place.
5. Evaluate your spending
Billion-dollar companies have whole departments dedicated to watching over spending and finding opportunities to save money. But small businesses typically don’t have those resources.
Fortunately, spend analysis solutions are now accessible to small businesses. Amazon Business Analytics automatically pulls in spend data to populate canned or custom reports. You can save time and identify savings opportunities with out-of-the-box reports and dashboards.
When you spend less time and money buying supplies, your business can grow faster. The free benefits available with an Amazon Business account help you stay flexible and move your business forward.
