Amazon Business, new U.S. Communities vendor

Amazon Business offerings are now open to U.S. Communities members

U.S. Communities, NACo’s cooperative purchasing program, has launched a new contract giving county users access to a variety of quality products available on the Amazon Business online marketplace.

With this new launch, county purchasing teams can use Amazon Business to buy business items within the 10 categories listed below:

• office supplies
• animal supplies, equipment and food
• audio visual and electronics
• books
• home and kitchen
• clothing
• musical instruments
• higher education scientific equipment and lab supplies
• classroom, school, art supplies and materials, and
• hard-to-find items such as 3D printers or commercial espresso machines.

Setup is quick and easy: Interested agencies simply need to register for U.S. Communities — if not already registered — sign up for an Amazon Business account and enroll to use the contract with the click of a button.

Amazon Business was awarded this exclusive multi-year contract through a competitive solicitation process and detailed evaluation conducted by Prince William County, Va. public schools. This lead public agency worked to put together a contract that fills a void previously unfulfilled for counties —  specifically, a purchasing option that supports local businesses and delivers office supplies as well as one of the most in-demand products for local agencies, pet food. 

The contract has many additional features. Through the U.S. Communities program, Amazon Business will provide public agencies with an avenue to not only concentrate miscellaneous spend, but also to consolidate purchasing data and produce reports on it. In addition to the products available on the marketplace, Amazon Business will offer tools to help purchasers such as multi-user accounts; approval workflows, which customize order approvals or set spending limits, for example; payment methods; reporting and analytics that track and monitor spending with dynamic charts and data tables; spend controls; and tax-exempt purchasing.

Amazon Business strives to support local business development by continuing to expand their sourcing from local businesses.  As part of this, counties will be able to filter products to view those derived from local, minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

 U.S. Communities is a free procurement option for public agencies nationwide. Counties can bypass the competitive bid process and piggyback on contracts already in place by other public agencies, saving time and money. The program offers a variety of goods and services from approximately 40 high-quality brands. 

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Interested in learning more? Contact Sharon Russell, russell@naco.org, or Kelly Boggs, kboggs@naco.org,  or visit www.uscommunities.org.