Inside the $35 billion-plus marketplace powering Amazon’s B-to-B growth

Amazon is touting its B-to-B business at a time when tariffs and broader macroeconomic pressures are reshaping how companies source and buy products. Business buyers are consolidating suppliers, leaning on digital procurement tools and seeking cost efficiencies, Brenda Spoonemore, vp of Amazon Business, told Modern Retail in an interview. As such, Amazon is positioning its marketplace as a strategic procurement partner rather than just a catalog of goods. 

“There’s really no other business buying solution that combines the scale of Amazon’s technology, data and logistics to support an organization’s supply chain and purchasing experience,” Spoonemore said.

While Amazon has offered a fresh peek into a relatively invisible but fast-growing part of its operations, the Seattle-based company was more tight-lipped than in years past about disclosing its business-to-business marketplace’s earnings. Amazon told Modern Retail that Amazon Business generates over $35 billion in annualized sales — a target it first hit in 2022, CEO Andy Jassy said in his shareholder letter at the time. That was up from $25 billion in 2021 and $10 billion in 2018.

Analysts at Baird Equity Research have previously forecasted that Amazon Business could top $80 billion in sales volume by 2025. Marketplace Pulse, the e-commerce intelligence firm, has put forth similarly lofty projections. “Given that the market of business-to-business buying is larger than the consumer one and that little of it is digitized, Amazon Business will likely surpass $100 billion in the next five years,” Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukėnas wrote in 2021. 

When asked about the metric, Spoonemore emphasized that Amazon Business drives over $35 billion in annualized gross sales, with strong adoption and positive feedback from customers. By leaving the annualized sales figure vague, Amazon is signaling strong momentum but avoiding a more precise update that would show whether it is on track to meet bullish projections. Amazon says Amazon Business is “one of [its] fastest-growing ventures.”

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said Amazon’s B2B marketplace is still growing despite the company’s restraint in updating its revenue figures. “Amazon is a little bit tight on what they put out. They really don’t want people dissecting their business,” he said. “But the business-to-business marketplace is growing. They are taking share in that segment still, so it definitely is a strong part of their growth story.”

The B-to-B marketplace opportunity

Launched in 2015, Amazon Business tailors the familiar Amazon shopping experience to businesses by adding bulk discounts, business-only pricing and features that help companies manage purchasing at scale. It even has its own Business Prime membership. Popular B-to-B product categories include office supplies, construction materials and tools.

Although only verified business customers can access Amazon Business, the look and feel of both marketplaces are similar, and many of Amazon’s business sellers also list on the consumer-facing site.

When it comes to recruitment, Amazon Business uses a mix of marketing, direct sales and in-person engagement, such as attending conferences and meeting with customers, to raise awareness and convince businesses to sign on.

Spoonemore said the company relies heavily on improving the foundations of Amazon Business, including item selection, value, customer experience and fast delivery. Nearly 50% of global orders and over 70% of U.S. Business Prime orders arrived same day or next day last year, according to Amazon.

“At our core, what Amazon Business does is take everything customers already know and trust about Amazon and then apply it to the way organizations buy at scale,” Spoonemore said.

Growth at Amazon Business is coming not just from enterprise buyers like Uber, ExxonMobil and Allstate, but also from small and mid-sized businesses using the platform to stretch strained budgets. For instance, more small and mid-sized businesses are buying in bulk in response to rising costs, a practice historically more common among large corporations, Spoonemore said.

Looking ahead, GlobalData’s Saunders said tariff-related concerns could continue this trend. “One of the ways to reduce expenditure can be to buy in bulk. Of course, this has become a little bit more popular, as well, because of tariffs,” he said.

More than a storefront

Spoonemore said Amazon Business offers “hundreds of thousands of sellers” across a range of product categories. Amazon has previously said half of its B-to-B marketplace’s sales come from third-party sellers. Spoonemore declined to share an updated figure.

She added that Amazon’s B-to-B marketplace’s value lies in being more than a storefront, as the company works closely with customers to optimize their businesses. “First, we work with each of our customers to understand how they operate and what they’re trying to solve, whether it’s cost savings or evolving their own technology,” Spoonemore said. “Next, we look at how to optimize their purchasing and delivery experience. … And then, by condensing their supplier network, those organizations can reduce their cost through quantity discounts and business-only pricing.”

Saunders said that infrastructure advantage — building B-to-B sales on top of Amazon’s logistics network — sets it apart. 

“Although this is a newer business for Amazon and they’re still building, they’re actually just piggybacking onto existing infrastructure,” he said. “That is a big advantage, because it just means Amazon can accelerate this, and it can do so in a way that’s reasonably profitable from the get-go.”