Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Business surpassed 1 million customers last July, but it’s still actively seeking more buyers as well as sellers.
In what has become an annual marketing campaign, Amazon.com is running a “Back to Business” promotion—at Amazon.com/backtobusiness—with deals on more than 1,500 products across 15 categories.
The Back to Business promotional campaign, which runs until Feb. 10, is part of an effort to get more customers of Amazon.com to register on Amazon Business. Featured prominently under these promotions on the landing page on Amazon.com is a banner ad soliciting visitors to register for an account on Amazon Business.
“Amazon’s Back to Business promo is another sign of how the e-commerce giant is using its e-commerce expertise to build its business buyer base in ways it hasn’t in the past,” says Brian Beck, senior vice president of e-commerce and omnichannel strategy at e-commerce design and development agency Guidance, who has written about how companies can compete with—and also sell through—Amazon’s B2B site. “It is also a sign of the level of importance that Amazon is giving to Amazon Business. By design, Amazon’s units all compete with one another for visibility on Amazon.com. By providing a level of exposure to its ‘Back to Business’ promotion, Amazon is clearly signaling that Amazon Business is a priority for the company.”
B2B companies can learn from Amazon’s strategy, Beck adds. “Amazon is best in the world at driving e-commerce volume, and B2B companies can apply similar approaches to their own marketing efforts—even if they don’t yet have e-commerce.”
The deals in Amazon’s Back to Business promotion include a $440 Oreck commercial floor-cleaning machine marked 56% off at $191.27, with free shipping; a $39.99 TP-Link Smart Plug Wi-Fi device marked 50% off at $19.99, and H&R Block software for processing business tax returns, with a list price of $79.99, marked 29% off at $56.99.
Amazon sells a broad range of business, industrial and scientific products on Amazon.com, where the seller of record can be either Amazon itself or third-party sellers. But on Amazon Business, located at Amazon.com/business, Amazon itself and third-party sellers can restrict sales to registered business customers and provide them with special contract pricing and other business account services.
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