Amazon takes aim at Staples with two-day shipping on office supplies
Replace your red stapler without paying shipping fees.
Free shipping is a big reason many of us are Amazon Prime members. Now, businesses looking to save on shipping costs for office supplies will be able to do the same. The company just announced the launch of its new Business Prime Shipping service in the US and Germany. In the US, multiple users from a registered Amazon Business account can take advantage of free two-day shipping. There's a 30-day free trial if you want to try it out, too.
Amazon has been looking for new ways to operate, like expanding its retail footprint to real-life businesses like Kohl's and Whole Foods. This new free shipping option for business members makes a lot of sense; it puts Amazon squarely up against office supply retailers like Office Depot and Staples, as well as big box stores like Sam's Club and Costco.
The new membership scales according to the size of your business, with annual memberships coming in at $499 for up to 10 users, $1299for up to 100 users and $10,099 for more than that. Once you've chosen a tier, everyone on your business account will be notified of the new free shipping options, and any new users will be added automatically. "Business Prime Shipping enables businesses with multiple users to further simplify their procurement procedures and increasingly rely on Amazon Business to deliver," said Amazon VP Prentis Wilson in a statement. "Customers can now get unlimited fast delivery across their organization on a vast selection of products while maintaining increased visibility on their business purchases."
