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Help & Customer Service

# Guided Buying

Guided Buying allows the business account administrator to set up policies marking: (1) certain products as preferred by their business' purchasing standards; (2) sellers as preferred organizations to purchase from; or (3) product categories as restricted. They can add approval workflows at the group level, and set the approval requirement to be triggered by any product category marked as restricted.

Guided Buying (previously called Catalog Curation) is an exclusive benefit of Business Prime. Organizations will need to be Business Prime members to use Guided Buying.

Note: The feature is only available to Amazon Business accounts with a Business Prime Small, Medium, or Enterprise membership. Learn More about Business Prime.

Set up Guided Buying Preferred Products

1. Go to Business Settings.
2. Select Edit beside the Guided Buying option.
3. Select the group whose settings you want to edit.
4. Select Preferred products.
5. Select Add preferred products.
6. You'll be taken to the Amazon Business homepage.
7. Search for the product you wish to add to the list.
8. Once you're on the products's detail page, select Add to preferred from the blue bar near the top of the page.
9. If you accidentally add a product, you can remove it using the blue bar or by managing the products in the Guided Buying settings.

Set up Guided Buying Preferred Sellers

1. Go to Business Settings.
2. Select Edit beside the Guided Buying option.
3. Select the group whose settings you want to edit.
4. Select Add Preferred Sellers.
5. Use the search option to look for a specific supplier or use the options on the page to refine your results.
6. From the Actions menu for each seller, you can view the seller's profile, ask them a question, view their storefront, view their returns policy, and add them to your preferred suppliers list.
7. Alternatively, click on the seller's name from the search results. This brings you to a seller profile page.
8. Here you can further analyze the seller and select Add to Preferred Sellers in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Set Up Guided Buying Restrictions

1. Go to Business Settings.
2. Select Guided Buying from the Buying Policies section.
3. Select the group whose settings you want to edit.
4. Select Restricted Policies.
5. Administrators can select Restricted Policies to add restrictions.
6. Select Add Policy. This allows you to select a group on the top right and:
   1. Add a Policy Name which is visible to Guided Buying administrators only.
   2. Add Message for Buyers which is visible to buyers on the products's detail page.
   3. Add a Description, (visible to administrators on the Guided Buying console).
7. Below, in the Restricted Categories table, you can select one or more categories by checking the box for each one. You can also search for a category and select it. Any categories selected will be added to the policy.
8. Select Save Policy and now the Restricted message along with the Message for Buyers will be shown to all requisitioners on detail pages for product's that belong to the selected categories.

Messages for these policies will appear in search results, the product's detail page, the shopping cart, and the order information page. If approvals are enabled for the business account, Approvers will see it on the approvals page and in the approvals email.

Note: The product categories available for Guided Buying are based on Amazon's online catalog. Amazon's online catalog relies on information provided by third parties to determine a product's category. The product categories may not include the level of granularity covered in your internal purchasing policies. Products may also be cross-listed in more than one product category. In some cases it may be possible for requisitioners to purchase products that the administrator intended to restrict from purchase using Guided Buying. To enhance the effectiveness of Guided Buying, you can require approvals for orders containing products in company-restricted product categories.

You can add more restrictions or preferred products at any time, as well as edit or delete existing policies. Select the Actions menu next to each policy and you'll see the Edit and Remove options.

Block or restrict products from non-ATEP sellers

If you’re enrolled in the Amazon Tax Exemption Program (ATEP), you can use Policies to block purchases of taxable items. Sign in to your business account and select Tax and Debarment policies from the Business Settings page. There, you can choose to set up a policy restricting taxable products.

Generate Reports on Guided Buying Purchases

The business account administrator can use Amazon Business Analytics to generate reports on preferred purchases or purchases in restricted categories.

1. Select the Account for your business menu.
2. Select Business Analytics.
3. Select the kind of report you want, then Filters and Add new filter.
4. Select Company Compliance.
5. Select equals or not equals and select Restricted. This option will not be available if there are no restricted purchases.
6. Select equals or not equals and select Preferred (if you wish to look at preferred purchases). This option will not be available if there are no preferred purchases.

Add a Guided Buying Approval Workflow

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