Understanding AWS Marketplace in the context of procurement solutions

For procurement professionals, AWS Marketplace might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Amazon. Many are more familiar with Amazon Business, a store for sourcing indirect physical goods. However, when it comes to procuring third-party software, data and professional services, AWS Marketplace is the dedicated platform designed to support businesses in building and running their digital infrastructure.

While both AWS Marketplace and Amazon Business belong to Amazon’s ecosystem, they serve distinct procurement needs:

• AWS Marketplace focuses on offering third-party software, data and professional services, all optimized for AWS. This includes cloud-based solutions for analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and IT management. Businesses use AWS Marketplace to find, test and deploy these solutions seamlessly within their AWS environments.
• Amazon Business serves over 6 million customers who need to procure physical goods, such as office supplies, IT equipment, MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations), JanSan (Janitorial and Sanitation) and lab equipment — the essential items for running a business.

Quick facts

AWS Marketplace provides a structured procurement environment for digital solutions, offering:

• Over 3 million active subscriptions.
• More than 20,000 public listings across 70 categories.
• 10,000+ professional services products (as of November 2024).
• 4,000+ data products available through AWS Data Exchange.

Solution overview

AWS Marketplace includes several procurement, cost management and governance features designed for enterprise adoption.

Procurement features and capabilities

• Standardized contract templates that can be reused across multiple transactions.
• Flexible pricing models, including pay-as-you-go, subscription-based and custom enterprise agreements.
• Purchase order management, allowing users to assign, update and track POs for AWS Marketplace transactions.
• AI-powered software comparison, enabling users to evaluate similar AWS Partner products based on key criteria.

Spend and cost management

• Procurement Insights Dashboard, providing an overview of agreements and expenditures.
• Cost allocation tagging, allowing organizations to categorize and track software expenses.
• AWS Cost Explorer and Budgets, integrating AWS Marketplace expenditures into broader financial management tools.

Governance and compliance features

• Private Marketplace, which allows organizations to curate a catalog of pre-approved software and services.
• License tracking and entitlement management, facilitating software distribution and usage monitoring.
• AWS Organizations, supporting centralized configuration, security and resource-sharing policies.
• Vendor Insights, providing compliance and security information for AWS Marketplace vendors.

Roadmap and vision

Short-term roadmap (2025)

• Expanding SaaS product availability: Starting on May 1, 2025, AWS Marketplace will allow all SaaS solutions, regardless of deployment location, with a new “Deployed on AWS” badge for native integrations.
• Enhancing procurement insights: Cloud Intelligence Dashboards will provide expanded procurement analytics.
• Expanding vendor collaboration: AWS Partner Connections will strengthen partnerships between software vendors and enterprise buyers.

Long-term vision

AWS Marketplace is focused on:

• Automating procurement workflows to streamline structured transactions.
• Deepening ERP and procurement integrations for improved enterprise compatibility.
• Expanding security measures to enhance compliance management.
• Applying AI to vendor selection to enable data-driven procurement decisions.

Final comment

As a final thought: Why aren’t AWS Marketplace and Amazon Business one unit? Is this separation a strategic choice or a missed opportunity?

While consolidation might seem logical from a procurement perspective, the reality is that AWS spend remains firmly in IT’s domain, Amazon Business spend under procurement’s control and other categories, such as marketing and professional services, are managed by their respective departments. Despite procurement’s ongoing efforts to gain oversight of all organizational spending, these battles remain largely unwon.

Whether Amazon’s decision to maintain separate platforms stems from substantial existing investments or recognition of fundamentally different purchasing workflows, it leaves us with an interesting question about the future of integrated enterprise procurement platforms.

For further analysis of procurement vendors visit Spend Matters Insider.