Amazon FAQ

To access the Amazon Business punchout , navigate to FlashCart through FlashLine and click on the Amazon Business tile.  This will take you to the Amazon Business punchout which will look identical to the website that you have previously used with Amazon Business Prime. Please use the Requisition Instruction Manual found on Procurement’s website

When you use the Amazon Business punchout from FlashCart, you will be automatically authenticated via SSO and will pass through to the Amazon Business punchout without having to enter any additional credentials.  If for some reason you are not authenticated via SSO, you will be routed to FlashLine for authentication.

This means your browser is blocking the pop-up window.  Please disable your pop-up blockers for the browser you are using.

The first time that you punchout from FlashCart to Amazon Business, you may receive a prompt that will ask you if you want to migrate your personal account to the Amazon Business account OR if you want to keep your personal account separate.   you must answer  no, as you can’t use you the Amazon Business account for personal use. You will be prompted to change the email address on your personal account to a different email address (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) that is not currently associated with an Amazon account.  At that point, your kent.edu email address will be freed up to join the KSU AB account with a clean profile. 

The person who placed the order will receive a confirmation email that will state the order’s estimated delivery date and shipping speed.

From within the Amazon Business punchout, navigate to Your Orders. The default view will display all orders “Paid For By You”.

As with all punchout items via FlashCart, only the requisitioner can see the orders that they have placed.  In FlashCart, however, others can see requisitions and purchase orders associated with Amazon Business.  Please visit Procurement’s Frequently Asked Procurement Questions webpage

You can view real-time delivery details for all pending orders, including estimated delivery date and carrier information. From within the Amazon Business punchout, navigate to Your Orders > Track Package.

Yes, create Lists!  From within the Amazon Business punchout, navigate to Lists in upper right corner of your screen and select Create a List.

Yes, in the Amazon punchout itself, but not in FlashCart.  These “buy later” items can be accessed for ordering in future punchout sessions.

No, the URLs are different.  You can search for the product in both sites by the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) in the product description details.

Amazon Business provides a dynamic marketplace of products, with changing prices and quantities. Controls are in  in place to account for these fluctuations (see Safeguards in the next Question). Although the email instructs you to contact your Amazon Business Account Administrator, the best way to get more information on a halted order is to contact Amazon Business Customer Service by clicking Contact Us from within your Amazon Business account or by calling 1-888-281-3847.

Yes. There are five instances in which orders can be cancelled due to Amazon Business limitations:

• Safeguards:  Amazon orders that require an approval per your dept. approval process currently setup in FlashCart will need to be approved within seven days.  If the order falls outside of the safeguards at the time of approval (that is, item pricing has increased more than 10%), the impacted item(s) or order will be cancelled.
• Multiple punch-out sessions:  Multiple punch-out sessions can result in a cancelled order. When shopping on Amazon Business through punch-out, make sure to use one punch-out session per order.
• Changing or Modifying Cart:  If PO is sent with deleted line items or modified quantities, the order will be rejected.
• Address on Final PO differs from Address at Checkout:  If the checkout address is in the contiguous US, but the address on the PO is outside the contiguous US, the order will be cancelled.
• ZIP Code Change for Next Day Delivery:  If the ZIP code on the final PO differs from the ZIP code used for the address at checkout and the item is set for next day delivery, the order will be cancelled.

As with all orders via FlashCart certain Amazon orders may be subject to a departmental approval process/workflow within FlashCart.  These types of orders will show in “pending” status and will remain in your order history for up to seven (7) days as “pending”.  If the order is not approved within seven (7) days, the order or particular items whose price has increased beyond 10% of the previous price will be cancelled and you will be notified via email. If the cart was cancelled and you still need the items, you will need to submit the order again for approval.

No. Kent State University business purchases can only be made  through FlashCart. If you attempt to make an Amazon Business  purchase outside of FlashCart you will not be able to check out and will receive an error telling you that your organization is using a purchasing system (FlashCart for ordering.

No.  Amazon is an electronic catalog and like other punchouts in FlashCart, the suppliers’ systems are not configured to accept changes to orders which are accepted and processed electronically and ship quickly.

To return an item, access your Amazon Business account.  Navigate to “Your Orders” to find the item(s) you want to return.  From Your Orders:

1. Select Return or Replace items
2. Choose a reason for return
3. Print label and authorization
4. Prepare package and return label

Items shipped and sold by Amazon can be returned within 30 days of receipt of shipment. Return policies, and timeframes, can vary if purchase was made from a 3^rd party seller.

“Amazon Capital Services”

Your order will only ship to the address selected in FlashCart itself, not Amazon Business.  Like other suppliers, the  address selection takes place after you have brought your cart back into FlashCart.  The address that appears should be your default ship-to address.  To change your ship-to address, select the pen icon next to the address that needs modified on the requisition.  If the address needed for delivery is not in the FlashCart system, please reach out to Procurement for assistance.  The Requisition Instruction Manual found on our website in the guides section provides additional detailed step-by-step instructions to modify addresses.

(Please note, while checking out in the in the Amazon punchout you may see defaulted addresses  listed. You can ignore these addresses since the address selection takes place after your order has been brought back into FlashCart.)   

The only form of payment available is a university issued Pcard.  Therefore, you can use  any  University issued p-card you are authorized to use.  Please visit Account Payables website for more information about the use of Pcard.

Amazon Business includes most items that are available for personal purchases on Amazon, plus additional business-specific products.  As with other purchases, there are several product categories that may contain items that are not approved for purchase per  Kent State purchasing polices. s you may see “Organization Restricted” messaging throughout the shopping experience. Product pages marked as “Organization Restricted” are available for purchase; however, you are responsible for ensuring your purchases are compliant with Kent State and its relevant policies and guidelines. Please refer to Frequently Asked Procurement Questions  for detailed information on Kent State University purchasing policies. 

As the purchaser, you are responsible for the purchases made under your Amazon Business account. To ensure you are following Kent State University’s purchasing polices you are  encouraged to  first check with other applicable contract vendors before you place your Amazon order to ensure that your intended purchase does not violate the University’s contracted vendor policy. You can access a full list of contracted suppliers and vendors on Procurements website.

Restricted items will result in your entire requisition to be on hold until reviewed by the Procurement department staff.

University employees are restricted from purchasing of the following items per University Policy 3342-7-12.1:

• All office supplies currently offered by our contracted vendor, Brown Enterprise Solutions/Staples (e.g., paper, printer ink/toner Post-It notes, pens/pencils, etc.)
• Alcoholic beverages
• Amazon devices and products (including Personal Prime, Echo, Alexa Dots, Kindles, and Fires)
• Desktop computers
• Desktop printers
• Laptops
• Tablets
• Digital goods and services (including games, apps, and television programming)
• Food and grocery
• Janitorial supplies

No.  University-contracted vendors must be used to purchase office supplies and other  specified goods. You can access a full list of contracted suppliers and vendors on Procurements website  at www.kent.edu/procurement/supplier-or-vendor-contracts.

Our frequent analysis and price monitoring shows that our contract pricing has significantly lower pricing than Amazon on our most commonly used items.   the University’s use of the Amazon Business account enables a convenience to the University buying community as a resource to locating those hard-to-find, specialized, or non-contracted items.

Please contact Procurement at procurement@kent.edu  with questions.

The Procurement department monitors Amazon Business usage and repeated purchases of items that could otherwise be purchased from our required contracted suppliers will result in the user’s access to the Amazon Business punchout to be removed.

Orders over the $2500 P-card limit require purchase orders (POs). Please visit Procurement’s Frequently Asked Procurement Questions webpage for more information about creating and managing POs.

No. Using a university issued P-Card for personal use are not permitted.

No. Business Prime Shipping benefits can only be used with your Amazon Business account.

Amazon Business Customer Service can be reached by clicking Contact Us from within your Amazon Business account or by calling 1-888-281-3847. Please use the Amazon Business Customer Services  team for anything relating to an order, transaction, shipment, and all general Amazon related inquiries.