Overview

Amazon Business has launched a suite of Guided Buying controls that let procurement teams either flag or entirely hide third‑party sellers from their internal purchasing flow. The tools, which roll out this month, give organizations a way to enforce compliance, quality, or sustainability standards across all employee orders. Sellers serving the B2B market need to understand how these controls could affect visibility and sales volume on the platform.

Key Points

• Restricted‑Seller Badge — A warning label appears on product listings when an admin marks a vendor as “restricted,” alerting buyers before checkout.
• Mandatory Approval Paths — Organizations can require a manager’s sign‑off for any purchase from a restricted seller, adding a compliance checkpoint.
• Complete Seller Block — When an admin chooses to block a vendor, that seller’s entire catalog disappears from the company’s search results.
• Central Admin Dashboard — Both restriction and blocking settings are configured in the Guided Buying section of the Amazon Business console.
• Tier‑Based Availability — Seller‑restriction tools are open to most Business accounts, while full blocking is limited to Business Prime subscribers.

What's Changing

1. Tagging Sellers with a Warning Badge — An admin creates a list of vendors that have triggered past issues (e.g., late shipments) and applies a “restricted” tag; the badge then shows up on every product from those sellers, such as a medical supplies company seeing a red warning on a catheter kit from a flagged distributor.
2. Enabling Approval Workflows — After a seller is tagged, the admin can turn on a rule that forces a supervisor to approve the order; for example, a finance team may need a manager’s OK before buying a high‑value software license from a restricted software reseller.
3. Activating Full Blocking — If a vendor fails a regulatory audit, an admin can select the block option, which removes all of that vendor’s items from the organization’s search results, meaning a construction firm will no longer see any safety helmets from the non‑compliant supplier.