Amazon.com Inc. is updating its business credit card program, shifting new applicants to U.S. Bank and Mastercard as it adds more rewards and financing tools for business buyers.
The retailer introduced the new Prime Business Card and Amazon Business Card on May 13. The launch moves new applicants away from American Express, which had issued Amazon’s business cards since the companies announced their partnership in 2018. U.S. Bank now issues the cards through Mastercard’s network.
The update comes as Amazon has been layering more services onto Amazon Business, its B2B marketplace. The new cards give the company another way to tie purchasing, payments and spend controls together.
Amazon ranks No. 1 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database. The database is how Digital Commerce 360 tracks the largest North American online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. That database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV)
Amazon Business cards offer rewards on and off Amazon
Shelley Salomon, vice president of Amazon Business, said the company heard from business customers that they wanted “more rewards outside of Amazon, more flexibility in how they pay, and more control over how their teams spend.”
The new cards were designed to meet those needs, she stated, offering “rewards that automatically adapt to each customer’s spending, interest-free installment options, and built-in spend management tools.”
The highest rewards still apply to Amazon‑related purchases. The Prime Business Card offers Prime members 5% back on eligible U.S. purchases — up to $150,000 annually — from Amazon Business, Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services and Whole Foods Market.
The Amazon Business Card, for customers without a Prime membership, offers 3% back on eligible U.S. Amazon purchases, up to the same annual cap.
Both cards have no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, Amazon said.
At the same time, the company is broadening rewards beyond its own channels. Customers automatically earn 2% back in their top three eligible spending categories each statement cycle on non‑Amazon purchases, up to $150,000 annually. All other non‑Amazon purchases earn 1% back.
Travel rewards are part of the package, too. Prime Business Card holders can earn 5% back on travel booked through the U.S. Bank Travel Center, while Amazon Business Card holders can earn 3% back, according to the company.
Financing and spending tools support business purchasing
Beyond rewards, Amazon said it added payment and spend-management features designed to help businesses control purchasing more effectively.
Customers can split eligible Amazon purchases into fixed monthly payments at 0% APR for up to 12 months. However, customers who choose that installment option do not earn rewards on those purchases.
The cards also connect with Amazon Business tools and U.S. Bank Spend Management. Amazon said customers can track spending in real time, view itemized reports with Amazon transaction details, set spending limits, and issue unlimited virtual cards with spend restrictions and expiration dates.
Mastercard said the cards include AI-powered fraud monitoring, Zero Liability protection, tokenization and cybersecurity tools. The company also said the cards are accepted at more than 100 million locations worldwide.
Existing Amazon Business American Express cardholders can continue using their current cards and earning rewards during the transition, Amazon said. Those customers will receive replacement cards they can begin using Aug. 14, and their existing rewards will carry over.
The issuer switch also gives U.S. Bank a larger role in Amazon’s small‑business payments strategy. U.S. Bank serves more than 1.4 million small business clients, according to an earlier announcement about the transition. The bank said the partnership will allow it to introduce additional services for small business customers over time.
Amazon builds more services around Amazon Business
The card launch comes as Amazon continues expanding services around Amazon Business.
The platform now drives more than $35 billion in annualized gross sales and serves more than 8 million organizations globally, Amazon said. Its customers include 97 of the Fortune 100.
A day after announcing the new cards, the company said Amazon Business Assistant gained new conversational capabilities for business and procurement teams. The marketplace’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant can now guide users through tax-exempt purchasing, approval workflows, spend controls, order visibility and spend anomaly monitoring.
Business customers can also use Alexa for Shopping, Amazon’s new AI agent, while browsing Amazon Business, the company said.
Earlier in May, the platform added same-day delivery of fresh groceries to businesses in more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns. The service lets business customers order produce, dairy, baked goods and frozen foods alongside office supplies and other everyday business products.
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