Amazon Business—and its product assortment, free shipping and other services—is now operating in Italy, at Amazon.it, and Spain, at Amazon.es, bringing to seven the number of markets the portal operates in outside of the United States.

The B2B unit of Amazon.com Inc. says its network of sites was designed to help multinational businesses streamline their purchasing as well as their own selling operations across Europe and beyond.

“The launch of Amazon Business on amazon.it and amazon.es enables multi-national businesses with entities in Europe to continue to streamline their purchasing, whilst also providing new exporting opportunities for smaller U.K. businesses who sell on the Amazon Business marketplace,” says Bill Burkland, head of Amazon Business, Amazon.co.uk.

Since launching in the UK a year ago, Amazon Business has served more than 100,000 business customers, from individuals and small businesses to larger international organizations, the company says. Its customer base also includes hospitals, universities and non-profit organizations.

Amazon Business says that half of unit sales on its site are processed by third-party sellers, including “tens of thousands” in the U.K.

Among new features Amazon Business has added to its
European sites are:

• Invoices services that display pricing including Europe’s value-added tax for more than 100 million products;
• Quantity discounts that buyers can request for eligible products;
• Product catalog features that let buyers configure product listings according to their procurement policies, such as identifying preferred products.

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