Amazon Business Rollout

The CU Amazon Business account is available exclusively to authorized university employees who meet the following criteria:

1. You must have the role of Shopper or Requestor in CU Marketplace, or
2. You must have a CU Procurement Card

To ensure compliance with university procurement policies, the CU Amazon Business account is integrated into existing financial and purchasing systems. This ensures that purchases made on the account adhere to university rules and budgets.

No, access to the CU Amazon Business account is not granted to individuals without a p-card or CU Marketplace access. If you believe you need access, consult your department's procurement or finance representative to explore options for obtaining a p-card or Marketplace access.

Yes, an authorized user can place orders on your behalf if necessary. Coordinate with your department to determine the best way to facilitate purchases while ensuring compliance with university policies.

If you do not have a p-card or CU Marketplace access, consider the following alternatives:

• Work with a colleague who has access.
• Submit a purchase request through your department’s procurement team.
• Use a pre-approved supplier or alternative purchasing method as directed by your department.

Contact your department’s procurement or finance office for guidance on the application process and requirements for obtaining a p-card or gaining access to the CU Marketplace. Be prepared to complete any required compliance training courses in Skillsoft as part of the process.

Please visit our Knowledge Articles (Amazon.com and Marketplace) on this topic, which details all possible scenarios for Amazon Business activation.

Amazon Business and Business Prime do not include Prime Video, Prime Music, and Prime Reading benefits or Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market items.

Amazon Business accounts will receive a prorated refund to the original payment method once they have been transferred to the central University of Colorado account. Please refer to the Knowledge Articles (Amazon.com and Marketplace) on activating Amazon Business accounts for more information on how to transfer.

The department will have to determine who should be responsible for the account and change the email address associated with the account to the individual’s email. Once this is completed, the department may then transfer the account to the central CU account using the activation process.

You will need to complete the training for and request the role of at least a Marketplace Shopper.

Both experiences have the same selection of goods available for purchase, and the user experience when shopping is substantially similar.

The most important distinctions for the majority of users will be the following:

The Amazon Business catalog in Marketplace pays via invoice directly from your department SpeedType. This eliminates the need for a separate reconciliation process via Concur, which will still need to be completed if you place an order with your Procurement Card via the Amazon.com experience.

Orders placed through the Amazon.com experience will allow for non-CU address shipping (subject to Campus Controller’s approval on the Anschutz campus).

Gift Cards cannot be purchased through CU Marketplace, as it operates on a line of credit with invoicing and payment 30 days post order. Gift Cards can ONLY be purchased via the CU Amazon Business Amazon.com experience.

No. When you activate your Amazon Business account, it will be one account available for access at either Amazon.com or the CU Marketplace. When you log in with your Amazon Business email at Amazon.com, you will be prompted to sign into your CU account via Single Sign-On capability.

The PSC will be initiating Amazon Business invites for the Amazon.com experience to new Procurement Card holders on a regular cadence every month. If you would like your invite immediately, you’re welcome to email psc@cu.edu and request that your invite be sent off-cycle.

Where applicable, Amazon automatically notes on the item any time that there is an available quantity discount.

Both the Amazon.com and catalog experiences for Amazon Business are curated by the Procurement Service Center.

Amazon Business will highlight, restrict, and block certain items:

Highlights: Indicates products CU wants you to consider first before alternatives. Products are elevated in search results for easy discovery. Examples of highlighted products are those sold by local businesses to Colorado, small businesses, diverse businesses and products that have a sustainable component.

Restricted: These are items that may be associated with an existing CU contract or available through a punchout supplier other than Amazon. While restricted items are searchable and available for purchase, users will see a pop-up message advising them to review CU contracts or punchout catalogs that may offer the item. Buyers can add restricted items to their cart, but additional approval may be required to complete the purchase.

Blocked: Hides product categories from search results and makes products unavailable for purchase. These measures have been put in place because of our pre-existing strategic commitments (for example: computer hardware must be ordered from contracted suppliers). If you notice an item is blocked from Amazon Business experience and you have a valid business reason for purchase, you are encouraged to reach out to psc@cu.edu as these blocks may be temporarily lifted where appropriate.

CU’s Amazon Business provides access to a curated selection of items available both through the CU Marketplace Amazon Punchout and on CU’s Amazon Business .com site. Please note that some items may be restricted or blocked. If you cannot find the item you need on Amazon Business, it may be available through one of our other strategic contracts or punchout catalogs in CU Marketplace. 

For example, office supplies, certain IT hardware, and scientific items may not be included in the Amazon catalog, as the University has established strategic agreements with other suppliers for these commodities. It is recommended to search other catalogs in the CU Marketplace for any goods that are not currently available in Amazon Business. 

After exploring these options, if you still cannot locate the item you need, please contact the PSC at psc@cu.edu for assistance. We also welcome your feedback regarding specific items you believe should be available.

Diversity and Ownership Credentialed Sellers are marked as “Organization Highlighted” on the Amazon Business account. When shopping, you will notice a green check mark with messaging “Organization Highlighted,” on items that have an offer from a Diverse Supplier. You can also apply filters on the left-hand side of the search results screen for specific credentials.

No, the URLs are different.  You can search for the product in both sites by the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) in the product description details. ASINs start with “B0”.

Yes. There are five instances in which orders can be cancelled due to limitations Amazon Business limitations: 

• Safeguards – If the approval is not completed within the seven-day cart lock, and the order falls outside of the safeguards at the time of approval, the item or order will be cancelled.  
• Multiple Punchout Sessions – Multiple punchout sessions can result in a cancelled order. When shopping on Amazon Business through punchout, make sure to use one punchout Session per order.  
• Changing or Modifying Cart (upon return to the CU Marketplace) – If PO is sent with deleted line items or modified quantities, the order will be rejected.  
• Address on Final PO Differs from Address at Checkout – If the checkout address is in the contiguous US, but the address on the PO is outside the contiguous US, the order will be cancelled.  
• Zip Code Change for Next Day Delivery – If the zip code on the final PO differs from the zip code used for the address at checkout and the item is set for next day delivery, the order will be cancelled. 

Any order subject to an approval workflow will not be processed until final approval. The order will remain in your order history for up to 7 days as “pending” until Amazon receives approval confirmation. Once approved you will receive an email confirmation. If the order is not approved within 7 days, the order will be cancelled, and you will be notified via email. If the cart was cancelled and you still need the items, you will need to submit the order again for approval.

Amazon will always fulfill your order based from the ship-to address selected in CU Marketplace. Your order will only ship to the address selected in CU Marketplace, not Amazon Business.

Your order will not be fulfilled until it is approved through the usual Marketplace approval process. At that time, you will receive an email confirmation. Any delivery estimates on the checkout screen may not be applicable if the order is not quickly approved. This is applicable to Prime Eligible Orders as well. Note: the delivery timeline for 3rd party sellers may vary.

Digital-related products, subscriptions, and Amazon Services (such as Amazon Web Services and Amazon Fresh) are not available for purchase. 

Unsupported purchases include: 

• Digital downloads, including: eBooks, audio books, movies, videos, music, software, and games 
• Electronic Gift Cards 
• Credit Cards 
• Alcoholic Beverages 
• Wireless Devices and Services 
• Subscriptions, including Subscribe & Save 
• Other Amazon services not found on Amazon.com such as Amazon Web Services, Amazon Fresh, and subsidiaries 

Electronic gift cards may be purchased on the CU Amazon.com Business account. Before placing an order, please ensure that the purchase complies with your campus's specific gift card policy and procedures. For more information, please refer to your campus’s gift card policy or contact your Campus Controller’s Office at the links below. 

Denver | Anschutz
Boulder
UCCS

Gift cards cannot be purchased through CU Marketplace, as it operates on a line of credit with invoicing and payment 30 days post-order. Please note that group or shared email accounts are not allowed to be used for Amazon accounts. Purchases must be tied to an individual p-card user’s name and their associated email address within Amazon.

Additionally, the Campus Controller’s Office will be auditing and closely monitoring p-card purchases after the system transitions go live to ensure compliance with university policies.

The new CU Amazon Business account replaces the need for departments to pay for or host their own group business accounts. To access the CU Business Amazon.com site, every user must have a purchasing card. You cannot have users share a purchasing card by adding them to an account. Users can either shop through CU Marketplace or set up an Amazon.com account with a purchasing card.

Orders placed in the Marketplace catalog will be paid automatically via direct pay through your SpeedType. CU's .com Amazon Business account is designed to accept only CU corporate business purchasing cards (PCards) for transactions. Once users merge their individual Amazon accounts into CU's Amazon Business account, the system enforces compliance by displaying a message if a non-CU PCard is trying to be used. For example, a prompt will appear stating : "This is not a purchasing card connected to your organization." This ensures that all purchases made through the account are restricted to authorized CU PCards.

From within your account, navigate to Your Orders. The default view will display all orders “Paid For By You”.

Yes, create Lists! To begin, hover over Lists in the upper right corner of your screen and select Create a List 

1. Select This list is for: you from the dropdown menu 
2. Select list type: Shopping List or Reorder List 
3. Name the list 
4. Privacy: Private 
5. Create List

Amazon Business provides a dynamic marketplace of products, with changing prices and quantities. Controls have been put in place to account for these fluctuations. Although the email instructs you to contact your Amazon Business Account Administrator, the best way to get more information on a halted order is to contact Amazon Business Customer Service HERE.

To return an item, access your Amazon Business account. Navigate to “Your Orders” to find the item(s) you want to return.  From Your Orders: 

1. Select Return or Replace items  
2. Choose a reason for return 
3. Print label and authorization 
4. Prepare package and return label 

Items shipped and sold by Amazon.com can be returned within 30 days of receipt of shipment. Return policies, and timeframes, can vary if purchase was made from a 3rd party seller. 

At this time, product returns are limited to refunds only and can only be initiated by the Punchout user or administrator. To replace the item, please re-order.

Boulder and Colorado Springs will receive palletized deliveries to their respective distribution centers, where the distribution teams will handle final delivery to recipients. Denver's packages will continue to be delivered through AHEC. For the Anschutz campus, we are collaborating with the Anschutz Facilities team, Controllers team, and Amazon Logistics to finalize delivery logistics.

As with all other Marketplace orders, it is not possible to ship an order from the Amazon catalog to a non-CU address. Shipping to a non-CU address using the Amazon.com website is allowable, depending on your campus (Anschutz campus users should consult with their Campus Controller’s Office if they would like to ship an item to a non-CU address).

Amazon lockers are not available for Amazon Business deliveries they are only available for consumer accounts.

You can view real-time delivery details for all pending orders, including estimated delivery date and carrier information. From within your account, navigate to Your Orders > Track Package.

The person who placed the order will receive a confirmation email with the order's estimated delivery date and shipping speed.

Millions of products are eligible for Business Prime Shipping and are designated with the Prime logo. You’ll be charged applicable shipping fees for items not eligible for Business Prime Shipping (Learn more).

Besides Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of eligible items, Business Prime Shipping provides all employees on your business account access to Prime Early Access and Prime Day deals. Business Prime Shipping currently does not include consumer programs such as Prime Pantry, Fresh, Music, or Video. 

No. Business Prime Shipping benefits can only be used with your business account. You are welcome to purchase an individual Prime membership for your separate personal Amazon.com account.

Amazon Business Customer Service can be reached by clicking Contact Us from within your Amazon Business account. Please use this team for anything relating to an order, transaction, shipment, and general Amazon related inquiries as well.

If assistance is needed when joining your Amazon Business account, chat with Customer Service here or (866) 486-2360, Account Registration Support: 844-428-3060

Because Amazon provides a marketplace made up of millions of sellers, there are instances when sellers may still charge tax on tax exempt purchases. Contact the Seller directly to request the refund. 

1. From within your account, navigate  to “Your Orders” 
2. Find the item that was charged tax and click “Contact the Seller”  
3. Enter subject as “Tax Exemption Refund Request” 
4. Include the order number and amount charged 

If you have issues contacting the seller, or other order related questions, please contact the Business Customer Service team HERE.