Amazon launches bid for UK business customers through new store

Builders needing tools and an office wanting laptops and other supplies can now buy them with a new Amazon account as the firm begins a new UK venture.

The retailer has launched Amazon Business in the UK, following its roll-out in the US and Germany.

The new free-to-join online store is a business-to-business platform only, with the set-up also enabling firms to potentially export their goods to other companies abroad by becoming an Amazon Business Seller.

It offers companies the opportunity to use the retail giant's distribution network for shipments abroad at, what it said would be, a competitive rate.

It comes at a time when firms are being urged to take advantage of the weak pound - a post-Brexit scenario that has made UK products more competitive overseas.

Amazon's investment in the hub means it will be competing for custom in a business-to-business digital marketplace that was worth £96.5bn in 2015, according to the latest official figures.

The company said it had taken on 50,000 business customers and 10,000 business sellers since launching in Germany in December.

Bill Burkland, head of Amazon Business UK, said: "Amazon Business combines more than one hundred million business products with a new set of unique business features - from reporting and analytics to spending limits and purchasing workflow approvals - making it everything you love about Amazon, now for business."