Creating and managing private offers
As an AWS Marketplace seller, you can create and manage private offers. Private offers are negotiated terms used to purchase a product from AWS Marketplace. This can involve a custom pricing plan, end user license agreement (EULA), or custom solutions. The following sections describe how to create and manage private offers.
Note
To be eligible to issue private offers, you must have at least one active public listing.
If you have a public listing, and you don't have access to the Private Offers tab, see IAM Permissions or contact AWS Marketplace
support
Topics
Starting a new private offer
The following steps explain how to use AWS Partner Central
To start a private offer
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
. Choose Private offers.
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On the Private offers page, choose Create private offer.
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On the Create private offer page, choose the offer type, product type, and the product that you want to create your private offer from. Processing takes up to 30 seconds. Don't close or refresh the page until processing finishes.
Note
You can't change the product type and product after you create the offer. For more information on private offers per product type, see Supported product types.
AWS Marketplace channel partners must choose between creating an offer for their own products, or creating a channel partner private offer (CPPO) from a resale authorization. When creating a CPPO, choose the independent software vendor (ISV), product, and authorization. For more information about resale authorizations, see Creating a selling authorization for an AWS Marketplace Channel Partner as an ISV later in this guide.
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Choose Continue to offer details.
A step-by-step experience guides you through the rest of the creation process.
Geo-targeting private offers:
You now have the option to select the countries in which buyers can view and accept private offers.
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If you extend the offer to a buyer outside of the selected countries, the buyer cannot accept the offer.
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You can select All Countries to make your offer available to buyers globally.
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India-based sellers can only sell to buyers located in India. This feature defaults to India for such sellers and cannot be changed.
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If the buyer is a linked account that is part of an AWS organization, then geo-targeting rules will apply based on the buyer's location and not the payer account's location.
Understanding offer statuses
Offers have one of three statuses depending on the lifecycle:
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Draft – The offer is incomplete and still being prepared by you. Private offers in a draft status are not subject to a retention schedule. All required details must be completed and submitted to publish the offer and extend it to your buyer.
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Active – The offer is published and extended to the buyer. The offer hasn't expired, so buyers can subscribe to the offer.
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Expired – The offer is published and extended to the buyer. The offer has expired, so buyers can't subscribe to the offer. The expiration date can be updated to give your buyers more time to accept the offer. To update offer expiration, refer to Updating the expiration of a private offer.
Note
After the offer is accepted, it will show up as an agreement in the Agreements tab. The status of the offer won't change.
Drafting and publishing the private offer
Use the following process to draft and publish your private offer.
To draft and publish your private offer
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On the Provide offer information page, provide the offer name, offer details, offer purpose, and offer expiration date. If this is a renewal offer, you must choose either Existing Customer on AWS Marketplace for renewals intended to renew an existing agreement created in AWS Marketplace, or Existing Customer Moving to AWS Marketplace for renewals intended to migrate your existing customer to AWS Marketplace.
Note
The offer expiration date is the date that the offer becomes null and void. After 23:59:59 UTC on this date, the buyer won't be able to view and accept this private offer.
Note
A renewal is defined as:
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Any private offer to a customer with an existing or prior private offer for the product, including expansions and upsells.
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Any private offer to a customer with an existing paid software subscription between seller and customer that did not originate but was renewed through AWS Marketplace.
A private offer that moves the customer from a public AWS Marketplace subscription to a private offer is not considered a renewal.
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Choose Next.
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On the Configure offer pricing and duration page, choose the pricing model, contract or usage duration, pricing, currency, and payment schedule. For pricing models that have an installment plan, see Private offer installment plans.
Note
Private offers can be created in non-USD currencies for all pricing types. Make sure you have configured your non-USD disbursement preferences. For more information, see Step 4: Set disbursement preferences.
All public offers and private offers with consumption pricing can only be created in USD.
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On the Add buyers page, provide an AWS account ID for each AWS Marketplace buyer you are extending the private offer to. Each selected buyer must have an AWS account in a AWS Region where the selected offer currency is supported. To add another AWS account ID, choose Add another buyer. You can add up to 24 buyers to each private offer.
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Choose Next.
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On the Configure legal terms and offer documents page, choose one of the following options:
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Public offer end user license agreement (EULA) – Use the EULA from your public offer.
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Standard contract for AWS Marketplace (SCMP) – Use the standard contract provided by AWS Marketplace.
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Custom legal terms – Upload up to five files related to your private offer, including legal terms, a statement of work, a bill of materials, a pricing sheet, or other addendums. These files will be merged into one document when the offer is created.
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Configure auto-renewal. Renewal terms define how this agreement renews when it reaches its end date.
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Renewal pricing – how the price changes between cycles:
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No price uplift – the agreement renews at the same price each cycle.
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Price uplift – the price increases each cycle. Choose the type: Fixed percentage (one percentage applied evenly across all dimensions every cycle; it compounds, so a 10% uplift takes $100 to $110 to $121) or Percentage range (a minimum and maximum you finalize before each renewal's adjustment deadline; you can apply one flat percentage or set a different uplift per dimension, as long as each stays within the range).
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No renewal – the offer carries no auto-renewal terms and the agreement ends at expiration.
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Renewal maximum – how many times the agreement can auto-renew, or unlimited.
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Renewal decision deadline – the last day a buyer or seller can change their auto-renewal decision before the next cycle is guaranteed.
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Adjustment deadline (percentage range only) – the date by which you must finalize the uplift for the next cycle, for percentage range renewal pricing models. In order to provide buyers with adequate time to review the final renewal terms, we recommend allowing a reasonable period between the adjustment deadline and the renewal decision deadline, no shorter than the minimum notice period mandated by applicable local laws (for example, 14 days where no stricter requirement applies).
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Default uplift (percentage range only) – the percentage applied automatically if you do not finalize a value by the adjustment deadline.
Price uplift with percentage range:
Choose a price uplift range when you want to:
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Adjust the uplift at each renewal – for example, to reflect a factor such as the consumer price index (CPI).
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Set a different uplift value for each dimension.
If you choose a price uplift range:
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You must finalize the exact uplift percentage for each renewal cycle before the adjustment deadline.
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You can set it from the Auto-generated private offers tab on the Offers page, or from the Renewal details tab of the agreement that is set to auto-renew.
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If you do not finalize a value by the adjustment deadline, the default uplift applies.
For more information, see Auto-generated private offers and Managing agreement renewals.
Renewal installment plan:
By default, renewals use the same payment frequency you set for the first contract cycle. You can change the renewal frequency if you want renewals billed on a different cadence.
Because the renewal start date is not known in advance, you choose how each installment's due date is calculated relative to that start:
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By month – the due date lands on a set month of the agreement, such as "month 3 of the agreement."
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By exact days – a set number of days after the agreement starts, such as "90 days after the agreement starts."
The preview shows pricing for the next renewal cycle only; each installment is shown as a percentage of the total contract value (TCV) for that cycle. If you configured a price uplift, the renewal total is higher, so each installment is larger even though the percentages stay the same.
Buyers review all of these terms before they accept.
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On the Review and create page, review the details of your private offer. After you review and confirm, choose Create offer to publish the offer and extend it to the buyers you chose. Offer publishing includes a request to the AWS Marketplace Catalog API, so it can take up to an hour to validate and process the offer. This request can be viewed on the Requests page.
Note
The offer will be published and extended only if the request succeeds. If the request fails, it won’t be extended to the customer. A failure means that there was either a system error or an error you must correct before resubmitting.
Adding private offer and demo request buttons
Sellers can add call-to-action buttons to their product detail pages. The buttons enable buyers to request private offers and guided product demos. You can add one or both buttons to your product detail pages.
You can use the buttons with the following product types:
Amazon Machine Image
Software as a service (SaaS)
Container
CloudFormation templates
To use the buttons, you must belong to the APN Customer Engagements Program (ACE). When buyers request an offer or a demo, they enter their contact details and a description of their use case into a form. AWS evaluates each request when a buyer submits it.
Requests with sufficient business context are shared with you as AWS originated opportunities in AWS Partner Central. Requests without sufficient business context are shared with you as leads, which you can enrich and run prospecting workflows against. Both types of request arrive as invitations in AWS Partner Central. You then follow up with the customer to discuss offer details or schedule a guided demo.
For more information about ACE, see the APN Customer Engagements Program
Steps in the following topics explain how to add the buttons to your product detail pages.
How demo and private offer requests reach you
Requests shared as opportunities
Requests with sufficient business context are shared with you as AWS originated opportunities. You receive an opportunity invitation in AWS Partner Central. Accepting the invitation creates the opportunity in your pipeline.
To find these invitations, go to Sell > Opportunities in
the AWS Partner Central navigation, then choose the Opportunity
Invitations tab. To narrow the list to requests from AWS Marketplace, filter to invitations
whose Project Title contains AWS Marketplace. After
you accept an invitation, the opportunity appears on the Opportunities
tab.
Engagement invitations expire after 5 business days if you don't accept them.
Requests shared as leads
Requests that don't include sufficient business context to qualify as an opportunity are shared with you as leads. Leads also arrive as invitations that you accept.
To find these invitations, go to Sell > Leads in the AWS Partner Central navigation, then choose the Lead Invitations tab. After you accept a lead, it appears on the Leads tab.
After you accept them, you can enrich these leads with AWS signals and run prospecting workflows against them, including lead overviews, sales plays, call scripts, and outreach email drafts.
Identifying requests from AWS Marketplace
How you identify these requests depends on whether they arrive as an opportunity or a lead:
Opportunities are identified by the Project Title, which includes AWS Marketplace and the request type. See Opportunity naming.
Leads are identified by the Lead Source field, which is set to
AWS Marketplace. An accepted lead also carries anAWS Marketplaceinteraction entry that states whether the customer requested a private offer or a demo.
Opportunity naming
Opportunities created from these requests use the following naming format:
[Customer company name] AWS Marketplace [Request Demo | Request Private Offer]
The request type indicates whether the customer asked for a guided demo or a private offer.
Long customer company names are shortened. The engagement title in AWS Partner Central supports up to 40 characters, so the title you see might be shorter than the full opportunity name.
Opportunity Quality score
Opportunities created from these requests include an Opportunity Quality score, based on the same criteria used for opportunities you submit yourself. You can use the score to prioritize these opportunities alongside the rest of your pipeline.
For more information, see Co-sell engagement in the AWS Partner Central Sales Guide.
Following up with customers
You contact the customer directly to discuss offer details or schedule the guided demo. The customer's contact details arrive with the request.
Follow up as soon as possible, and within 5 business days of receiving the request.
Button prerequisites
Before you can add the call-to-action buttons to your product detail pages, you must have the following prerequisites:
Make sure you can receive AWS referred leads and opportunities in AWS Partner Central. For more information, see the APN Customer Engagements Program
website. Note
After you enroll in the ACE program, status updates occur every two weeks. The private offer and demo request buttons appear only after the status update is complete. If you choose these options and receive a message, your access is pending the next biweekly update.
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Link your AWS Partner Central and AWS Marketplace accounts. To do that, you must:
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Create the
CreatePartnerCentralCloudAdminRoleIAM: policy. For more information, see the prerequisites for account linking in the AWS Partner Central Getting Started Guide. -
Link your AWS Partner Central and AWS Marketplace accounts. For more information, see Link your AWS Partner Central account to your AWS Marketplace account, in the AWS Partner Central Getting Started Guide.
After you link your AWS Partner Central and AWS Marketplace accounts, your Partner Central Home page displays the following status message:
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For more information, sign in to Partner Central and see the following:
Note
You must sign in to use these resources.
Enabling the buttons
Once you become ACE eligible to receive AWS referrals, you use AWS Partner Central to enable one or both call-to-action buttons.
You follow separate processes to enable the buttons, depending on whether you create a new product listing or update a current listing.
To enable buttons for new products
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Use AWS Partner Central
to create the following types of products and make them public: AMI
SaaS
Container
Cloud Front template
As part of creating the product, under Guided demo and private offer requests, choose any combination of Enable guided demo requests for buyers and Enable private offer requests for buyers.
Note
The buttons only appear on the product detail pages in your private offers after you make the product public.
To enable buttons for existing products
In AWS Partner Central
, on the Build tab, select the product that you want to change. Open the Request changes list and choose Update product information.
Choose any combination of Enable guided demo requests for buyers and Enable private offer requests for buyers.
The buttons only appear on the product detail page after you save your changes.
After you enable the buttons, you can remove public pricing from your listing so that buyers contact you through the Request for private offer button instead of purchasing through a public offer. For more information, see Update pricing visibility.
Sending a private offer to a buyer
After the private offer has been published, buyers can view it by navigating to the Available private offers tab on the Private offers page in AWS Partner Central. On the Available private offers tab, the buyer can see offers extended by AWS Marketplace Channel Partners in the Seller of record column. The independent software vendor (ISV) will display in the Publisher column. A buyer can navigate to a private offer by choosing the appropriate Offer ID in their offers list.
Buyers can view offer IDs that have been accepted or that have expired on the Accepted or expired offers tab.
After the private offer has been published, you can send your buyer a URL to the fulfillment page for the offer.
To send a private offer to your buyer
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
, and choose Private offers. -
Select the radio button next to the offer.
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Choose Actions and then Copy Offer URL.
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Send the URL to your buyer.
Cloning your private offer
You can clone a private offer, including AWS Marketplace Channel Partner private offers. Use cloning to create a new offer using a template or to update and replace an existing offer.
To clone a private offer
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
, and choose Private offers. -
In the Private offers table, select the option next to the offer you want to clone.
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Choose Clone offer.
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A new offer-creation experience will open with pre-populated information from the selected offer. Review and modify the offer details as needed.
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(Optional) If you're cloning to replace an existing offer, select Cancel the existing offer. When selected, the original offer will automatically expire and not be accessible to the buyer when this new offer is published. This only affects the offer's accessibility and does not impact any existing subscriptions if the buyer has already accepted the original offer.
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Choose Clone private offer. This will publish the offer and extend it to the buyers you selected previously.
Downloading offer details
Use the following procedure to download offer details in a .pdf file.
To download offer details
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
, and choose Private offers. -
In the Private offers table, select the option next to the offer and choose View details. Alternatively, you can choose the link for the offer in the Offer ID column.
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On the offer detail page, choose Download PDF.
Saving your private offer progress
Use the following process to save your progress and resume later.
To save and resume your work
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At any completed step, choose Save and exit. In the dialog box, confirm that you're saving the content in a draft state and review any validation errors. If there are any validation errors or missing details, you can choose Fix it to go to the step and resolve the issue. When you're ready, choose Save and exit to save your changes.
After you save and exit, the request is under review while it's processing. It could take a few minutes or hours to finish processing. You can't continue the steps or modify the request until it has succeeded. After the request has succeeded, you have completed the save. If the request fails, there was either a system error or an error you must correct before resubmitting.
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To resume working on your offer, open the Private offers page, choose your offer, and then choose Resume offer creation.
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When you're finished, you can choose either Save and exit to save your progress or Create offer to publish and extend the private offer to your selected buyers.
Updating the expiration of a private offer
Use the following process to update the expiration date of a private offer.
To update the expiration date of a private offer
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
, and choose Private offers. -
On the Private offers page, choose the offer you want to update.
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Choose Edit.
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Provide a new offer expiration date.
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Choose Submit.
After the update is complete, the offer will change to an Active status and your buyer can accept the offer.
Cancelling a private offer
Use the following process to cancel the private offer.
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Sign into AWS Partner Central
, and choose Private offers. -
On the Private offers page, choose the offer you want to update.
Note
Cancelling the offer will modify the offer expiration date, so the offer will display as expired for buyers who were extended this offer.
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Choose Action and then choose Cancel offer.
