Amazon releases major report into online purchasing trends.

 

The increasing impact of e-commerce in the B2B sector has been highlighted in a detailed report released this month by Amazon Business. 

 

According to the findings, 85 per cent of business buyers said that as a result of the pandemic, their organisations were propelled to move more of their procurement online, while 96 per cent said they anticipate their organisations will continue doing more purchasing online, even after pre-pandemic business functions resume. 

 

Significantly, 91 per cent of buyers said they prefer e-procurement over traditional and offline purchasing methods.

 

In 2020, 38 per cent of buyers made more than 50 per cent of purchases for their organisations online.

 

Smaller commercial organisations were highly motivated to accelerate their digital transformation efforts in the last year. Fifty-six per cent of small-and-medium businesses said they more fully digitised their purchasing process due to COVID-19, compared to only 42 per cent of enterprise commercial companies.

 

“Our 2021 B2B E-commerce in Evolution* report underlines the fact that simply leveraging e-procurement is no longer enough,” Todd Heimes, director of Amazon Business, said. “Ultimately, we think that organisations have a significant opportunity to maximise e-procurement technologies that will help them overcome operational challenges that diminish efficiency and waste budget.”  

 

*Amazon Business surveyed 250 B2B buyers and 250 B2B sellers who hold influential procurement roles across government, education, healthcare, and commercial industries in the US.