Fabricio Pedroza, Director, Amazon Business UK

Just before Amazon Business Exchange (ABX) ​​​​​​​ in London, we sat down with Fabricio Pedroza, Director of Amazon Business, UK, to discuss procurement. Subjects included the requirements of UK customers and what leaders are sorting to address. 

Fabricio has been at Amazon for the last 11 years, and moved to his role as the UK Director at Amazon Business in 2022. In this position, he is leading the business development and account management team that supports large customers in the public and private sectors.

He specialises in enhancing business procurement, helping organisations reduce costs and driving productivity through digital transformation.

Prior to his current role, Fabricio held diverse positions across Amazon, including Consumer Retail and Amazon Devices, where he led pan-European product management and sales teams driving the launch, customer adoption and engagement of Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Fire TV.

Before joining Amazon, Fabricio worked at Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings in the Netherlands and BearingPoint consulting in Brazil, the United States and the Netherlands.  

How are the procurement requirements of a UK customer different from those in the EU? 

The average UK customer shares very similar requirements as European customers, but this is where we start differentiating our approach to customers by sector and segment. At Amazon Business, we strive to be the preferred solution provider for customers of all sizes, across a wide variety of industries. This is why we’re committed to working closely and actively listen to the unique requirements of each customer in different markets.

For our large enterprise customers based in the UK, they tend to have fairly similar requirements as those in the EU. So, we're talking about some customers with complex delivery requirements that need seamless integration with their current procurement systems. Streamlined invoicing is also a big thing that we are constantly talking about.

However, the differences are more distinct with our customers who operate in the public sector. Within procurement, we need to cater to various country regulations and even regional regulations in Europe. Meanwhile, in the UK, there is a more consistent regulatory landscape, which has been operating over the years since our formation here. 

What is the impact of these regulations? 

I think that different countries are increasingly recognising the evolving landscape of procurement. Our aim is to become more flexible and shift away from the traditional method where procurement was originally set up to focus on cost savings and best price deals, to a more strategic approach that helps organisations to save time and resources. 

In the UK, we’ve been at the forefront of this transformation. For example, we’ve been collaborating with some government organisations to re-think their overall spending strategies. We’re supporting them by becoming more flexible in understanding how our stores operate with different sellers and how to take advantage of this, instead of getting stuck into old ways of going through long bureaucratic processes to get everything under control. 

With Amazon Business, we ensure our customers can maintain visibility and transparency in how they’re meeting regulations, while supporting them in securing the best price deals for their products.  

What do you think the biggest difference is between the UK market and other markets around the world? 

We see similar trends in various regions worldwide, but there are certain themes that resonate more strongly in the UK. In terms of the biggest difference, for example, many of our UK customers are prioritising ESG, which is a key focus particularly for organisations in the public sector due to various regulations that are in place. 

Now, we're also starting to see large commercial companies coming to us to support them with their ESG initiatives, as procurement leaders within these organisations are striving to introduce more innovative solutions to help meet their ESG targets, in addition to helping them make more sustainable decisions to invest in local communities.  

A few years ago, we worked with a UK council to help them to overcome the challenge of reserving a portion of their budget to invest in their local community. We listened, understood their requirements, and collaborated with our global peers to develop and launch a solution for this called Guided Buying. This solution helps organisations, like this UK council, to select preferred products their users should consider first when making purchasing decisions. 

While the Guided Buying solution was initially built for UK customers, we’ve seen a great demand for it in other regions like North America and Japan. 

What are the biggest demands that procurement teams are coming to Amazon Business for help with?

At Amazon Business, we work with some of the largest enterprise companies in the world, and one of the biggest demands we see is about ensuring consistency across their operations. For example, companies like BP collaborate with us in the US, Europe and the UK, having very similar requirements we need to manage in a joined up way. 

Despite regional differences in software and landscape, these customers constantly seek enhanced transparency, connection with their assistance and compliance to their internal guidelines and rules. 

We’re constantly striving to accelerate improvements across all regions to meet these expectations and support our customers efficiently and effectively. 

Can you share some of Amazon Business’ biggest success stories in the UK?

Since our inception, Amazon Business has been thriving in the UK. Our compound annual sales growth rates has been 25% year over year for the past four years. We’re continuing to excel, but our success is fuelled by the success of our customers. Today, we’re operating with 66 out of the FTSE 100 companies,15 of the largest universities, and 29 out of the 30 of the biggest councils in the UK. Our reach and the depth of the partnerships with these customers are continuing to grow and innovate!

One of our biggest success stories in the UK is our collaboration with Capita, a business outsourcing company. Through our partnership with Capita, we supported the company in saving time and resources, and creating deeper integrations, which resulted in helping them save an impressive US$225,000 annually. 

I have many great stories in the commercial sector, but success stories within the public sector often touch my heart the most! Take the University of Sussex, for example. Procurement leaders at universities have very strict demands to demonstrate that their funds are being used effectively for the benefit of their students. Over the years, we have been working with the University of Sussex to develop deep integrated solutions that helps them cut costs, increase transparency and create a specialised purchasing structure. As a result of this, the university saved thousands of pounds all by leveraging our store to buy from nearly 4,000 different sellers, while having a seamless experience with a single point of contact at Amazon Business. 

Another favourite of mine is our partnership with the nationwide charity, Cash for Kids, which is dedicated to collecting donations for underprivileged children. Their biggest campaign, Mission Christmas – which has been running for over 30 years – aims to collect donated presents for kids in the UK who don’t have the privilege to receive one during the festive season. We’ve been working with Cash for Kids for a few years now to develop an innovative online catalogue where children can visit and easily pick the present they want to receive. Then, anyone wanting to donate can go over there and choose a present and purchase. The backend of that is the Amazon business solution and we will be delivering for those kids at Christmas time. I think that over the last year, this initiative resulted in delivering over 30,000 additional presents to children, and more than half a million pounds in extra donations.

I think there is a bigger sense of purpose in that and when I think about universities and schools, it's always the mission that we talk to our customers about. We want to make sure that we release time for our customers for what matters the most. 

You should be worried about your product, you should be worried about our sales, you should be worried about how to grow and not necessarily about the intricacies of the purchasing experience. Especially thinking about education organisations, we don't want our teachers to become procurement experts. We want to make sure that they're buying what they need, whenever they need and whenever Amazon Business can work with those customers and different partners in making sure that they have a seamless experience, that's where it makes me happy every day. 

Is there a particular area procurement leaders are focused on right now? 

ESG is a recurring topic of discussion and an area where Amazon Business is heavily invested in. We're constantly thinking of ways to enhance visibility and empower our customers to make smarter and more sustainable decisions. 

For example, at this year’s ABX, we announced significant improvements to our Guided Buying feature. With enhanced capabilities, account administrators can now access a new, seamless toolbar to help them purchase products with sustainability certifications in the Climate Pledge Friendly program. 

We're constantly working with our customers to create new capabilities, such as improvements to the Guided Buying feature, enabling them to improve their ESG initiatives within their organisations. 

What innovations is Amazon Business working on? 

At Amazon Business, we’re constantly innovating and launching new features and capabilities to improve our customer’s buying experience. At this year’s ABX, we also launched the Amazon Business App Centre, offering more than 25 different apps to help customers make more informed decisions and seamlessly integrate features. The app covers a wide range of options, from enhanced reporting and visibility to inventory management, rewards and recognition. 

We’re also introducing new tools to help account administrators streamline user management within procurement organisations. These features enable strict control of who is purchasing within their organisation, reducing any unnecessary rouge spending, while making the process easy to implement and control for users.

We’re continuing to listen and work closely with customers worldwide to build global capabilities, which are tailored to their local needs. Here in the UK, my team is especially passionate about engaging with customers and listening to their feedback, so that we can translate their insights into potential new future capabilities. 

We’re very excited about the opportunities in the business space. Our progress is what drives us, but there's still so much to build! We’re proud to see that customers are not only buying from Amazon Business, but also partnering with us to help shape the future of procurement. 

Shelley Salomon, Vice President of the Global Amazon Business, sat down to talk about Amazon Business’s evolution, outlined its priorities and what it will look to focus on as it continues to grow.

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