How To Boost Your Sales On Amazon Business Become A Certified Small Or Diverse Seller

Discover how to increase your sales on Amazon Business by becoming a certified small or diverse seller. Learn about the demand for socially responsible purchasing, certification requirements, and Amazon's tools to highlight your business.

• Becoming a certified small or diverse seller on Amazon Business can boost your sales.
• Amazon Business values small and diverse sellers, and they are in high demand.
• Many corporations are interested in socially responsible purchasing, creating opportunities for small businesses.
• Federal and state agencies provide certification assistance.
• Guided buying policies on Amazon Business can help increase visibility for certified sellers.

In this presentation, titled "How to Get Certified as a Small or Diverse Business," Antwaun Griffin, the Head of Socially Responsible Purchasing at Amazon Business, discusses the advantages of becoming a certified small or diverse seller on Amazon Business. Griffin highlights the increasing demand for socially responsible purchasing and the importance of standing out as a small or diverse seller. He emphasizes that offering high-quality products at competitive prices is crucial to Amazon Business's value proposition for business customers. Still, there is also a growing interest in supporting small and diverse companies from local communities. Amazon Business is actively working to make small, diverse, and local sellers more visible and searchable on their platform.

Griffin references a survey by Deloitte Global, which estimates that over 90% of large corporations are interested in socially responsible purchasing, with over 60% of their procurement offices formally measured by how much they spend with small and diverse suppliers. This growing interest presents an opportunity for small and diverse sellers to expand their businesses.

The speaker shares his experience working with the federal government, mentioning that the Small Business Administration aims to award 23% of government contract dollars to eligible small businesses. Additionally, the government has set a goal to increase spending with small and diverse businesses to 15% in the coming years. To support this, the SBA and other state and local agencies offer counseling and assistance for certification, planning, and access to financing.

Antwaun Griffin introduces a unique tool provided by Amazon Business that allows buyers to create guided buying policies, highlighting certified or local sellers. These policies increase the visibility of sellers and provide opportunities to sell to companies in their communities and across the country. Many buying customers have already adopted these buying policies, creating growing sales opportunities for certified small and diverse sellers.

To tap into this expanding opportunity, businesses need to become certified as small or diverse sellers and include this credential in their seller profiles on Amazon Business. Griffin shares a success story involving the city of Miami, Florida, which has used guided buying policies to purchase from small, diverse, and local sellers on Amazon Business. Many other cities, states, and school systems have similar programs, aiming to support local businesses and achieve their purchasing goals through certified sellers.

The presentation addresses the question of how businesses can become certified. Antwaun Griffin provides guidelines, focusing on federal certification requirements. He mentions that there might be slight variations in requirements for state or locally issued certifications. To be eligible for federal certification, a business must meet specific criteria, including being at least 51% owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. The firm must also qualify as a small business according to the Small Business Administration's size standards. While Amazon does not certify businesses, they accept all nationally recognized certifications.

To get started, Griffin outlines the following steps

1. Register for a professional selling account on Amazon by visiting Amazon.com/saleb2b.
2. Certify your business through the Small Business Administration or your local or state small business agency.
3. Review the beginner's guide to selling on Amazon, which is a valuable resource for third-party sellers on Amazon Business.
4. Upload your products to your catalog.
5. Create a profile and upload your certification.
6. Start selling on Amazon Business.

Antwaun Griffin concludes the presentation by expressing his hope that the information provided about becoming certified as a small or diverse seller will empower businesses to grow their sales on Amazon Business. He encourages the audience to take action and leverage the opportunities available to them on the platform.

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