Amazon has announced new technologies designed to reduce costs for its business customers as well as a change that will reduce the company’s impact on the environment.
Amazon Business, the company’s online business-to-business procurement store, has introduced a number of new technology features designed to help large business customers, including multinational enterprises, universities, government agencies, education organizations, and healthcare networks, simplify and modernize the way they shop for business supplies.
Recent research conducted by Amazon Business revealed that U.S. procurement teams are struggling to drive efficiencies within their organization, with close to 49% of respondents reporting complexity of systems and multi-step processes as the main contributors to this problem. As a result, 95% of procurement leaders acknowledge that there’s a need to optimize their procurement functions. Instead of a convenient, intuitive, and personalized experience, teams are spending too much time performing tasks related to processing orders and leaders see improved procurement tools as the solution for this challenge.
The new technology features include the Amazon Business App Center, the System for Cross-domain Identity Management, and Integrated Quoting. In addition, the company has updated its Budget Management and Guided Buying solutions.
Amazon also recently announced that it has replaced 95% of the plastic air pillows from its delivery packaging in North America with paper filler, working toward full removal by end of year.
Through testing of paper filler made from 100% recycled content—which included an assessment by a third-party engineer lab—Amazon found that paper offered the same, if not better, protection to products than plastic air pillows. The paper filler is also curbside recyclable, making it easier for customers to recycle at home.
The shift represents Amazon’s largest plastic packaging reduction effort in North America and will avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.
