In the rising trend of corporate procurement migration to online channels, Amazon continues its expansion outside the U.S. with launches in India and Japan. That puts the marketplace giant in 5 global markets already for the B2B marketplace. The corporate buyers can pay with cards, C.O.D. or even an Amazon B2B gift card. There are separate portals for buyers and suppliers. A seemingly unique feature for India is that retailers can also stock up through the site. Registered buyers in Indiaalso have the ability to obtain credit through an Amazon bank partner ICICI.
Manish Tiwary, a vice president of Amazon India, which operates the retail site Amazon.in, says on the India-based business news site LiveMint.com that Amazon Business has learned from the more than 200,000 sellers on Amazon.in that they also need an online marketplace to buy what they need to operate their businesses. “What we’ve gathered is that lots of small businesses struggle to meet their procurement needs,” Tiwary says.
In addition to local competitors in both Japan and India, Amazon faces off with the Chinese markeplace giant Alibaba. We have been tracking the progress of this channel and believe the upside is quite substantial, with a mobile angle gaining momentum.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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