Amazon Business Solutions officially launched in beta mode two services for small and medium-sized businesses on Tuesday: "WebStore by Amazon," a storefront offering, and "Fulfillment by Amazon," a fulfillment service.

WebStore by Amazon allows businesses to create their own ecommerce websites using Amazon technology. Merchants can customize their sites using their own photos and branding. WebStore by Amazon sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, which includes credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of $59.95/month, no matter how many WebStores they set up, and with no limits on the number of listings a merchant can create.

In order to qualify for a WebStore, merchants must already be selling on Amazon Marketplace. Frequent Marketplace sellers generally sign up for Pro Merchant accounts and pay a monthly fee of $39.99 to Amazon, plus a 6 to 15 percent commission and a variable closing fee; the regular 99-cent per sale portion of the closing fee is waived for Pro Merchant subscribers. WebStore by Amazon fees are independent of the Pro Merchant subscription fees - therefore, a WebStore merchant is likely to pay $39.99/month in addition to the $59.95/month subscription fee. Items sold on Amazon.com through Marketplace appear along with Amazon's own items on search results, WebStore items do not appear on Amazon.com - only on the merchant's site.

Amazon requires all sellers to use its own payment-processing system, so sellers cannot use their own merchant accounts, nor can they use PayPal or Google Checkout. However, buyers on WebStore sites do not have to reveal their credit card information. Instead, when they click on Checkout, they are brought to a co-branded sign-in page where they sign in using their Amazon account information.

WebStore merchants can include other products from Amazon in their WebStore to earn additional revenue through the Amazon Associates program. WebStores merchants may also create an opt-in newsletter powered by third-party vendor Constant Contact if they are interested in marketing to their customers.

Bill Thompson of SeattlesGiftShop.com has been participating in Amazon's pre-launch testing of WebStores for over a year. He likes the service because he pays one monthly fee no matter how many sites he sets up through the WebStore service. He owns a brick-and-mortar store specializing in silver items, such as silver baby cups and flatware. On the Internet, he sells silver and other items including jewelry boxes and office globes. He's been selling on Amazon for three years (some of his older websites are powered by Yahoo Stores). His items are higher priced goods, and he sources directly from manufacturers.

Thompson creates niche sites that show up high on search engine search results through his efforts in search-engine optimization and pay-per-click initiatives. He believes having multiple stores gives him an advantage in that regard.

He uses WebStore by Amazon to power his SeattlesGifts.com (http://seattlesgifts.com) website, and he's working on creating a new site, GreatGlobes.com. Thompson said no matter where the order comes from, whether it's from Amazon.com directly or any one of his WebStore by Amazon sites, he can download one file, making orders far easier to process and fulfill. He can also make a change to one product and have it show up across all WebStore stores.

Amazon Business Solutions Director Tim Mirick said WebStore by Amazon can create a level playing field for small and medium businesses, removing obstacles for growth. "Day-to-day mission-critical functions such as handling sensitive payment information and making sure our websites can handle big spikes in traffic are fundamental pieces of Amazon's business," Mirick said.

Number of Amazon.com active, registered customers	59 million
Number of Amazon.com active seller accounts (sold in the last 12 months)	1.08 million

Amazon also announced on Tuesday "Fulfillment by Amazon," a service that allows businesses to use Amazon's own order fulfillment and post-order customer service infrastructure. It allows Amazon.com customers to receive the benefit of Amazon.com shipping offers such as Amazon Prime and Free Super Saver Shipping when buying products with the "Fulfilled by Amazon" icon next to the offering listing.

Businesses can send their products to an Amazon fulfillment center, where Amazon stores and sends those products to customers who order them on Amazon.com or the business' WebStore. Merchants pay Amazon a handling fee as low as $0.50 per item plus $0.40 per pound and a storage fee of $0.45 per cubic foot per month, according to the company.

Joe Walowski, Product Manager of Fulfillment by Amazon, said Amazon had been hearing from customers that they wanted to be able to take advantage of Amazon's free shipping opportunities for third-party sellers. "With membership in Amazon Prime growing every day, more and more Amazon.com customers want a great deal on shipping and to receive their orders quickly. Fulfillment by Amazon makes it possible for sellers to offer Amazon.com customers this convenience."

Both Fulfillment by Amazon and WebStore by Amazon are available in beta. They can be used separately or together.

http://www.amazonservices.com/businesssolutions