Amazon Business ‘Buy Local’ scheme is boost for procurement

Amazon Business has announced the launch in Europe of its new Buy Local feature, giving chief procurement officers (CPOs) and their teams the ability to identify sellers on a city level, make local purchasing decisions, and invest in local businesses. 

The free feature is now available for business customers of all sizes on  Amazon Business in the UK and Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. 

With Buy Local, Amazon Business now empowers procurement executives to quickly implement business-wide policies that highlight preferred local sellers through customised local areas and price limits. 

Buyers across an organisation are able to see local procurement options among the various competitive offers, ensuring that large enterprises can empower hundreds of employees to follow the same buying policy and easily find local supplies.  

Procurement has a strategic role in achieving the local purchasing targets of an organisation. In a recent Amazon Business survey, 90% of procurement executives said investing in local communities was one of their procurement goals. 

Buy Local features allow procurement leaders to set company-wide guided buying policies, which can enable hundreds or even thousands of buyers within individual companies to spend on more sustainable products. 

The new feature also helps organisations invest sustainably in local communities, allowing buyers to easily find and order supplies such as Climate Pledge-friendly products. 

Amazon UK&I GM Fabricio Pedroza said: “Sourcing products and services from local businesses offers a huge opportunity, but at the same time it is challenging to change existing supply chains, particularly within bigger companies. 

“We created Buy Local with the aim of making this easy and achievable for CPOs, by simplifying the local buying process at scale across their organisation, enabling them to buy more locally and responsibly, while fulfilling today’s and future targets.” 

Buy Local offers CPOs analytics tools

Buy Local also comes with access to Amazon Business Analytics reporting tools, meaning spend made locally can be easily tracked, managed and reported against corporate and team goals. 

“This gives CPOs the information they need to make faster, more strategic decisions,” said Pedroza. “ With real-time data, leaders can drive progress towards local purchasing goals, optimise the process, forecast future budgets, and develop policies to help guide buyer spending.”

Amazon said that, in the UK, several customers who took part in the initial roll out of Buy Local are already spending up to 40% of their Amazon Business procurement budgets through Buy Local, whereas in Europe, they are spending between 37% and 50%.

The company revealed certain key sectors are leading adoption of the feature. Amazon Business healthcare customers in the UK, for example, increased spend with local sellers by 20% during the roll out. 

Other UK industries, such as the public sector, city administrators and government bodies - as well as education, construction and technology  - are also making use of the feature, enabling hundreds of employees to choose to support local businesses and buy from local sellers. 

About Amazon Business  

Amazon Business helps millions of customers worldwide - from small businesses, schools, hospitals, non-profit organisations, and government agencies to large enterprises with global operations - reshape their procurement with cost and time savings, greater productivity, and insightful purchasing analytics.