Amazon Business

Overview

Amazon Business is the business-to-business (B2B) arm of Amazon, launched in April 2015 to serve organizations rather than individual consumers. Operated out of Seattle and wholly owned by Amazon.com, Inc., it is a procurement and wholesale-buying marketplace that layers business-specific features — business pricing, bulk discounts, tax exemption, purchase orders, and multi-user account controls — on top of Amazon’s core catalog and fulfillment network. It now operates in 11 countries and serves over 11 million organizations worldwide, including 97 of the Fortune 100.

What they’re known for

Amazon Business is distinctively known for taking the frictionless consumer Amazon experience and re-engineering it for the mechanics of corporate procurement. Where consumer Amazon is one person, one card, one address, Amazon Business is built around organizations: a single account can hold many users grouped into departments, with defined roles, spend limits, approval workflows that route purchases above a threshold to a manager, and auto-cancellation of unapproved orders. It is famous for four signature B2B capabilities that consumer Amazon does not offer: (1) business-only prices and Quantity Discounts (tiered pricing that kicks in from just two units, up to five tiers, plus Request for Quote for orders over $10K or 999 units); (2) automated tax-exempt purchasing via the Amazon Tax Exemption Program (ATEP) for qualifying schools, nonprofits, and government buyers; (3) multi-user accounts with approvals and budget controls; and (4) deep integration into corporate procurement — 100+ eProcurement/punchout system integrations, single sign-on, purchase orders, and business credit lines.

History

• 2012 — Amazon launches AmazonSupply, a standalone site for industrial and MRO (maintenance, repair, operations) products.
• April 2015 — Amazon announces Amazon Business, folding AmazonSupply into it; the old site begins redirecting in May 2015.
• 2016 — Passes $1 billion in GMV in its first year.
• 2018 — Surpasses $10 billion in GMV; expands into multiple European markets and Japan.
• 2020 — Reports roughly $25 billion in worldwide GMV.
• 2022–2023 — Reaches ~$35 billion in annualized gross sales.
• 2024 — Launches a vendor-managed inventory service (Amazon staff replenish supplies at customer sites).
• August 2025 — Marks its 10th year, confirming $35B+ annualized GMV and 8M+ organizations served.
• July 2026 — Announces $60 billion in annualized gross sales, 11M+ organizations, with 1.8M+ organizations joining in the first half of 2026.

Business model

Amazon Business runs the same hybrid model as consumer Amazon, but tuned for organizations. It is a third-party marketplace at its core: more than half of Amazon Business sales come from third-party sellers (over $17.5 billion of the $35B milestone), on which Amazon collects referral fees — a commission typically in the 8–15% range of the sale price, varying by category — plus optional Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and advertising fees. Amazon also sells first-party (1P) inventory directly. Layered on top is a recurring subscription revenue stream, Business Prime, sold in tiers scaling by user count (roughly Duo $69/yr for 1 user up to Enterprise ~$10,099/yr for unlimited users), which bundles free shipping, spend analytics, Guided Buying, and — in newer tiers — services like payroll and cybersecurity. Creating an Amazon Business account itself is free; monetization comes from seller commissions, Business Prime subscriptions, and advertising.

Why it succeeded

Amazon Business succeeded by attacking a market enormously larger than consumer retail — U.S. B2B commerce is measured in the trillions — with assets no traditional distributor could match: an existing catalog of hundreds of millions of products, a national fulfillment and logistics network, and a buying experience employees already knew from shopping at home. As the Marketplace Pulse and Distribution Strategy Group analyses note, B2B buyers (governments, universities, hospitals, militaries, corporations) generate higher average order values and lifetime value than consumers, and Amazon captured them by removing the procurement-specific friction that had kept AmazonSupply niche: tax exemption, approvals, purchase orders, punchout integrations, and business pricing. The third-party marketplace flywheel did the rest — small-business seller selection grew ~80% year over year to 160M+ items, giving buyers assortment depth (industrial, scientific, healthcare, and facilities-maintenance selection up ~25–30% annually) that regional distributors struggle to rival, while palletized and same/next-day delivery reset service expectations. The result is a business that roughly doubled from $35B to $60B in annualized gross sales in about three years.

Notable facts

• Reached $60 billion in annualized gross sales in Q2 2026, nearly double its ~$35B figure from three years earlier.
• Serves over 11 million organizations worldwide, including 97 of the Fortune 100.
• More than 1.8 million organizations joined in the first half of 2026 alone.
• More than half of sales come from third-party sellers (~$17.5B+ at the $35B milestone).
• Operates in 11 countries: US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, India, and Australia.
• Delivered over 500 million business orders in the past year; Business Prime members saved $880M+ in shipping and buyers saved $1B+ through business discounts in 2025.
• Grew out of AmazonSupply (2012), which was shut down and rebranded when Amazon Business launched in April 2015.
• Small-business seller selection grew ~80% year over year to over 160 million items.

Links

Title	URL	Type	Note
What is Amazon Business?	https://business.amazon.com/en/blog/what-is-amazon-business	official-site	Official page detailing features: business pricing, quantity discounts, ATEP, multi-user management, integrations
Amazon Business Reaches $60 Billion in Annualized Gross Sales, Serving Over 11 Million Organizations Worldwide	https://press.aboutamazon.com/2026/7/amazon-business-reaches-60-billion-in-annualized-gross-sales-serving-over-11-million-organizations-worldwide	news	Official Amazon press release with latest 2026 milestone figures
Amazon Business Reaches $60 Billion in Annualized Gross Sales (INN)	https://investingnews.com/amazon-business-reaches-60-billion-in-annualized-gross-sales-serving-over-11-million-organizations-worldwide/	news	Coverage of the $60B milestone, AI purchasing tools, dedicated delivery trucks
Amazon’s $35 Billion B2B Marketplace	https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazons-35-billion-b2b-marketplace	article	Analysis of the model; notes >50% of sales from third-party sellers
Amazon Business GMV tops $35 billion	https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/08/20/amazon-business-gmv-35-billion-10th-year/	article	10th-anniversary milestone, country list, selection growth
Amazon Business GMV Hits $35 Billion Raising Stakes for Wholesale Distributors	https://distributionstrategy.com/amazon-business-gmv-hits-35-billion-raising-stakes-for-wholesale-distributors/	article	Competitive analysis for traditional distributors; logistics and discount stats
What is Amazon Business? Pros, Costs & Requirements (Wise)	https://wise.com/us/blog/what-is-amazon-business	article	Breaks down Business Prime pricing tiers and account requirements
Amazon Seller Fees Explained 2026	https://novadata.io/resources/blog/amazon-seller-fees-explained	article	Referral fee structure (8–15% by category) underpinning marketplace revenue
Amazon launches Amazon Business marketplace (Retail Dive)	https://www.retaildive.com/news/amazon-launches-amazon-business-marketplace/391600/	news	2015 launch coverage; AmazonSupply consolidation and $8.2T market context