THE PROCUREMENT INTERVIEW
A decade in business, eight million global customers and continuous innovation for global procurement functions – Amazon Business has a lot to celebrate. That the company, which streamlines procurement for organisations of all sizes, has been so successful is testament to its laserfocus on exceptional service. It’ s also an indication of just how much the procurement function needs the kinds of solutions it offers.
For those in the profession, the last year or two have been turbulent. Supply chain disruption, global complexity and the need to optimise diversified sourcing strategies have put strain on teams already under pressure. Factor in rapid digital transformation and a growing drive for responsible sourcing, and you have a challenging balancing act for senior leaders.
For Shelley Salomon and the Amazon Business team, there’ s never been a better time to reimagine procurement. In London for the organisation’ s annual Amazon Business Exchange event( ABX 2025) – a celebration of its 10 year milestone and an opportunity to discuss how to future-proof procurement – Shelley set out these challenges in more detail.
“ It’ s been a demanding year for procurement,” she explains.“ In Europe, the impact of the challenging global economy is at the top of everyone’ s mind, particularly around the fact that macroeconomic growth is pretty slow,
requiring a focus on savings. In the US, our customers and our businesses are working to understand the changing global economic landscape as a result of tariff disruption and other headwinds.
“ Another interesting and growing area is the rise of socially-responsible purchasing,” she says.“ We’ re witnessing a real drive from our customers around wanting to buy more sustainable products from locally-owned and more diverse businesses, and to gain enhanced supplier transparency and visibility.”
Shelley knows the intricacies of the procurement landscape more than most.
40 August 2025