AWS Marketplace Lowers Partner Fees In ‘Game-Changer’ Channel Move
“[AWS] will actually see a massive revenue uptake from this, not just the marketplace revenue, but the platform consumption,” said Intuitive.AI CEO Jay Modh.
Amazon Web Services is striving to have more partners join the “billionaire” AWS Marketplace club by reducing listing fees from 2.5 percent to 0.5 percent for AWS consultants, systems integrators and MSPs.
“By reducing the fees for partners, we think that enables more and more consulting partners to put those offers on AWS Marketplace to reach more and more customers,” AWS global channel chief Ruba Borno told CRN.
The 80 percent fee reduction to 0.5 percent is for professional services private offers listed on the AWS Marketplace, which makes it more cost-effective for AWS partners to transact on the cloud marketplace.
“This reduction in fees is one of the best things AWS could have done,” said Jay Modh, CEO of AWS Premier Partner Intuitive.AI.
“They will actually see a massive revenue uptake from this, not just the marketplace revenue, but the platform consumption. It actually has become a catalyst for us to drive a lot of business through AWS Marketplace now,” Modh said.
Over 99 Percent Of Top Customers Using AWS Marketplace
Hundreds of AWS partners are currently selling and transacting professional services via the AWS Marketplace as more and more customers buy and consume AWS cloud via the marketplace.
“We have hundreds of thousands of customers transacting through the AWS Marketplace,” said Borno, AWS’ vice president, global specialists and partners (pictured above).
“I believe something like over 99 percent of our top customers globally are transacting through the AWS Marketplace, and more and more partners are coming online every day,” she added.
Caylent is a fast-growing AWS Premier Partner that sees marketplace fee reductions as a huge win for the channel.
“AWS changing the fee structure has been a game-changer,” said Caylent CEO Val Henderson.
“It has totally changed the way companies like Caylent and others are willing to think about transacting on Marketplace because for us being a professional services business, that is impactful at that percentage,” said Henderson. “We’re not a software company operating at software margin, so that’s great for us. I love that they heard that feedback from partners and made that change.”
What ‘Drove’ AWS To Reduce Marketplace Fee
AWS customers can find the appropriate partner through AI-powered discovery in Agent Mode; procure complete solutions through multi-product solutions that combine software and services in a single transaction; and pay through variable billing models like time-and-materials—all through AWS Marketplace.
“The thing that drove [the fee reduction] is that in the agentic era, we’re seeing that customers need multi-product and multi-service solutions to get that business outcome,” said Borno.
“You need a data layer, maybe you need an ISV solution, maybe you need a consulting partner to help develop or implement and deploy the solution,” she said. “We’ve been really excited about how that’s helping customers not only put together the pieces of what they need to solve their business outcome, but actually find a full-stack solution that can meet their needs.”
Caylent’s CEO said the AWS Marketplace helps reduce customer friction and makes it simpler for businesses to find and procure the correct solutions and services they need from partners.
“We’re moving more towards fixed outcome and fixed fee, which makes procuring on Marketplace much easier than time and materials,” Henderson said.
The AWS Marketplace ‘Billionaires’ Club
Borno said there are 13 AWS partners that have sold over $1 billion on the AWS Marketplace.
These include technology vendors like Salesforce, Databricks and CrowdStrike, as well as channel partners like Presidio.
“I’m hoping to be inducting a lot more billionaires into the billionaire club and AWS,” Borno said.
Intuitive.AI CEO Modh said his company currently has a handful of listings on the AWS Marketplace but dozens of more offerings in the pipeline.
“So we’re super happy about this AWS Marketplace change. It creates a very good ecosystem with lower fees and higher adoption,” he said. “I think that’s going to be a game-changer for AWS and for partners like Intuitive.”