Thomson Reuters
Amazon Business, the online retailer's Staples competitor, has sold over $1 billion worth of products since its launch last year, the company announced Wednesday.
That's a big milestone for the marketplace launched specifically to target business customers last year. Amazon Business sells everything a company needs, from basic office supplies to industry-specific products like lab equipment or hospital wear.
"Buying at Amazon through Amazon Business saves businesses a lot of time and it also helps them lower their cost," Prentis Wilson, VP of Amazon Business, told Business Insider. "We’re bringing technology to businesses and we’re helping them buy the way they’ve been asking for for a while."
The site offers bulk discounts and exclusive items to business owners that are not available on the regular Amazon website. It says hundreds of millions of products are available on the site, with over 5 million of them eligible for group discounts.
It also has features that make it easier for businesses to streamline its ordering process, like approval and invoices. Orders worth over $49 are eliglble for free two-day shipping as well.
All this is leading to robust user growth. Amazon says more than 300,000 businesses have bought things on Amazon Business, while over 30,000 sellers sold through the marketplace. Third party sellers have comprised more than half of all orders on Amazon Business. That's important because Amazon takes a portion of all sales made by third party sellers.
Amazon Business is still a tiny portion of Amazon's overall business, which generated almost $30 billion in its most recent quarter. But its first year scale is promising, as its pace is comparable to that of Jet.com, one of the fastest growing e-commerce startups: it took Jet.com a little over 10 months to reach $1 billion in total merchandise sales.
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