Procurers Can ‘Buy It Now’ Via Amazon

As industry experts continue to push the B2B buying experience online and encourage the adoption of B2C eCommerce tactics among B2B buyers and suppliers, more businesses are turning toward the B2C eCommerce giants to gain insight into how to make this happen.

One of these giants is of course Amazon, which recently launched its own business-to-business online commerce service, Amazon Business. But as it turns out, many procurement officials are already turning to Amazon to purchase what they need for their businesses.

Now, one company is making it easier for buyers to access the industry equipment and parts they need with the ease-of-use offered by Amazon. ThomasNet.com revealed Thursday (May 28) that it is extending its service in connecting buyers and suppliers through a “Buy It Now On Amazon” function. While buyers can use the ThomasNet.com platform to find the OEM and MRO products they need through its Product Sourcing application, ThomasNet.com will now allow users to seamlessly conduct a purchase transaction for those products through Amazon.

According to ThomasNet President Mark Holst-Knudsen, the new capability is all about bringing a new level of ease for B2B buyers. “We’re all about making buyers’ lives easier and enabling them to work more efficiently,” he said in a statement.

The platform said that it offers more than 10 million OEM and MRO products for corporate buyers, and millions of them will now be able to be purchased through Amazon with the Buy It Now feature. ThomasNet added that it will expand the ability to procure straight through Amazon as it integrates more information about its suppliers and products.

Recent research has shown that when suppliers and manufacturers do not offer an adequate website to research and purchase products, they often turn to Amazon to fulfill orders. ThomasNet’s new feature appears to strengthen Amazon’s position within the B2B procurement space even as B2B eCommerce adoption grows.