There are plenty of different Business Prime plans that fit all kinds of organizations. Business Prime leader Mark Brinton and Chris Brown, General Manager, B2B Cobrand Payments cover the plans and perks.

Personal versus Business Accounts

What’s the difference between Amazon, Amazon Business, Prime and Business Prime?

• Amazon and Prime:

Amazon probably doesn’t need much of an explanation, and if you’re a customer, it’s likely that you are a Prime member as well. Members get free shipping and other benefits like Prime Video and Amazon Music.

• Amazon Business:

Amazon Business was created just for businesses. Once you create an account, you get access to exclusive business-only pricing on select items and account features like a convenient mobile app. You are also now separating your work and personal purchases, which can make things like budgeting and doing your taxes easier. Not a bad deal, right?

• Business Prime:

Business Prime is a membership program designed for Amazon Business customers. Benefits include fast, free shipping on eligible items, access to survey and analytics tools, and more.

Find the Right Business Prime Plan

There are plenty of different Business Prime plans that fit all kinds of organizations. For small businesses, we recommend either the Duo or Essentials plans, as these are designed with the solopreneur or growing business in mind.

Business Prime Duo

Duo was designed for business owners who want the best of Amazon Prime at home and at work. Prime members get Duo free. Customers with a Prime account will use a different email to sign up for a free Amazon Business account, then will link those personal and professional plans. In addition to keeping your digital and household benefits like Prime Video on your personal account, you’re adding even more perks through Business Prime Duo on your professional one. We’ll get into that in a minute. 

Business Prime Essentials

Essentials takes things up a notch. This plan works for members who want to add up to five users on their account, and introduces new benefits like Guided Buying and Spend Visibility, which give customers a better view into their team’s buying behavior. More on Essentials below 

Get to Know Business Prime Duo

• You get the same fast, free delivery you know from Amazon Prime. Duo takes this up a notch with predictable delivery dates and convenient business shipping. This means you can choose that days that work best for you to receive orders. You can also consolidate shipments for less boxes and packaging, and get free pallet delivery on eligible items.
• Another benefit geared toward the small business owner comes via our third-party partner, Delighted. As a Duo member, you can deploy surveys and gain valuable insights into what customers want from your business or like about it.
• Finally, as a Prime customer, you’ll be eligible to apply for the Amazon Business Prime American Express Card. Details on that below. Terms and conditions apply.

Let’s take a look at an example of how customers use Duo.

Putting Business Prime Duo to Work

We created a persona to illustrate the benefits a user can take advantage of with a Business Prime Duo membership. Let’s say there is an owner of a restaurant, we will call him “CJ,” and let’s call his restaurant “Lunch is Served.” CJ is the type of customer who has been a Prime member for years. He’s someone who has bought a lot for his business with using Prime. This is the type of customer who might have heard about the benefits of Amazon Business and Business Prime, so he decides that he wants to create a free Amazon Business account, and signs up for the Duo plan.

For starters, a customer like CJ might save $500 per year thanks to fast, free shipping. With that extra money, he may choose to invest it back into his business. Duo members like CJ may also take advantage of the free surveys offered as part of the plan. As a result, maybe he learns something new about his customers — like the fact that they prefer more vegan options. Thanks to that insight, he’s since added some new things to the menu. Finally, Thursdays might work best for a customer like CJ to receive deliveries. That’s why he might chose that as his “Amazon Day.” Planned delivery days help busy business owners add some predictability to their hectic schedules and get supplies in when they are needed the most.

Get to know Business Prime Essentials
As your business grows, Business Prime grows with you. That’s shown by the layering on of benefits we see here with Essentials. These plan members get all the benefits of Duo — the fast, free shipping, consolidated deliveries, and access to the Amazon Business Prime American Express Card.

• And in addition, the plan adds on access to Spend Visibility and Guided Buying.

Putting Business Prime Essentials to Work
Let’s take a look at an example customer persona we’ve created to show the benefits of Business Prime Essentials. Our next persona is “Rose,” and she’s the owner of a growing phone and computer repair shop, with big plans to expand her business to multiple locations.

• Spend Visibility: Someone like Rose might be a big fan of the added tools they get through Essentials. First is Spend Visibility, which members can use to get into the weeds and identify trends in their purchasing behavior. Someone in Rose’s position can add up to three readers to their account — for Rose, this is just enough for her new location managers. With this new visibility into her team’s spending, the group can make smarter buying decisions.
• Guided Buying: Next, Rose is taking advantage of Guided Buying, where she can set preferred and restricted products and sellers. This way, her buyers at other locations don’t have to question whether they’re making the right orders. Instead, those rules are laid out in front of them, saving plenty of time for the team, as well as keeping it compliant with company goals.

Summary/Conclusion

Business Prime is a membership program that offers tools designed specifically for businesses. While Duo and Essentials are often the best fit for small businesses and sole proprietors or entrepreneurs, there are three other plans that offer even more benefits that grow alongside your business. Fast, free shipping is just the start. Customers can take advantage of convenient business delivery, access to 5% back on Amazon Business purchase in U.S., Terms and cap apply, and more. 

ExxonMobil found that Amazon Business provided one of the most effective ways to realize such efficiencies. Amazon Business allows companies to get instant snapshots of what is going on with their procurement, whether they need visibility into what employees are buying or want instant analytics on overall spending trends within the organization. “For large companies, one of the biggest advantages is being able to look end-to-end across the entire procurement process,” says Aster Angagaw, vice president, head of commercial, public, and strategic sectors for Amazon Business. “Selection, price, and convenience are nice, but visibility, analytics, and control are next-level tools for improving large businesses.”

Amazon Business also simplifies digital transition by integrating directly into many e-procurement systems, another technique ExxonMobil is using. “If your organization is serious about delivering superior value to customers, you have to be ahead of the curve,” Kefy says. “Amazon Business is an integral piece of our digital transformation.”

One-stop shopping

Large businesses are not the only ones that can benefit from enhanced digital procurement tools and features. Typically, big companies have entire departments dedicated to procurement. In small businesses, however, the procurement manager likely plays an important role—and often it is the owner themselves.

Red River Brewing Company is a restaurant and brewery operating out of Red River, New Mexico, run by Michael and Sharon Calhoun, along with their son Chris, who is their head brewer. Although their procurement needs are extensive, as a small business focused on their day-to-day operations, they want to accomplish this with as much efficiency and as little drama as possible. “What we like most about Amazon Business is the ability to find almost everything we need to run this company in one place,” Michael says. “It means I don’t have to spend hours leafing through catalogs or driving long distances.”

“One thing small businesses love is the ability to pay by invoice,” Angagaw says. “When you are organizing your procurement and reconciling your books, it’s always better to have everything on detailed invoices.”

Red River uses Amazon Business to source everything from office supplies and IT equipment, to point-of-sale systems, shelf-stable goods, and brewing systems supplies. They also take advantage of mobile ordering, which allows them to place real-time orders from the floor of the restaurant. “I keep lists of my commonly purchased items, and with the push of a button I’m restocked in two days,” Michael says.

Purchasing with purpose

Finally, Amazon Business makes it possible for organizations to leverage their purchasing power to do good for their community. New features allow users to index products based on whether they are local businesses, whether they are minority owned, or whether products have any sustainability certifications. The city of Baltimore has been using Amazon Business to turn its purchasing across 50 different departments, offices, and commissions into a tool for stimulating business for local companies.

“It is very important that city agencies have the ability to buy directly from our local suppliers,” says Erin Sher Smyth, the city’s former chief procurement officer. “Amazon Business allows agencies to search for products from diverse groups of vendors including veteran-owned businesses, LGBT-owned businesses, as well as women- and minority-owned businesses.”

Amazon Business’s Guided Buying feature, available with Business Prime plans, also provides easy-to-use tools for administrators to set guidelines for what products employees can purchase, setting preferences for anything from price to sustainability or locally sourced products. The popularity of these new tools is its own best endorsement. “Companies are increasingly choosing to allocate more of their spend to suppliers who support their mission,” Angagaw says. “In the past two years we’ve seen a tenfold increase in customers using Guided Buying to set preferences for small, diverse local suppliers or for more sustainable products.

Originally published on Fast Company, click here to view.