Tag: Small businesses

Amazon Touts Sales Growth Among Small and Medium Businesses

Amazon Jan. 18 announced that more than 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses exceeded $500,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide, and nearly 200,000 surpassed $100,000 in sales.

Amazon is the country’s No. 1 retailer and one of the leading retailers of home entertainment, both physical (DVD and Blu-ray Disc) and digital. The site also is home to many small retailers who sell discs, both new and used.

Amazon further said the number of small and medium-sized businesses eclipsing $1 million in sales in its stores worldwide grew 20% in 2018. “Millions of small and medium-sized businesses from around the world are selling in Amazon’s stores and more than a million of them are based in the United States,” Amazon said in a news release.

“This year growth of small and medium-sized businesses in our stores enabled business owners to create new products, provide greater selection to customers, and reinvest in their local communities through job creation,” said Nick Denissen, Vice President for Amazon. “Since we opened our shelves to third-party sellers in 2001, small and medium-sized businesses have been an integral part of Amazon’s DNA. Our guiding star is an obsession with customers, and the service we’ve built is more powerful because we have small and medium-sized businesses complementing and competing with our retail business.”

Third-party sales are growing at a faster rate than first-party sales on Amazon and across retailers in the United States, Amazon said. During the 2018 holiday season, Amazon reported that sales by small and medium-sized businesses outpaced its retail business sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide.

Amazon Launches ‘Storefronts’ Small Retailer Platform

Borrowing a page from its Amazon Channels third-party over-the-top video service platform, Amazon Sept. 17 announced the launch of Storefronts – a platform giving Prime members attention to more than 20,000 small and medium-sized retailers selling on Amazon.

While many of these businesses currently participate as Amazon third-party sellers, the Storefronts platform pledges to give them added exposure through national marketing and online videos.

Amazon first began using third-party sellers nearly two decades ago, and today, small and medium-sized businesses. To support the launch of the new store, Amazon is unveiling its first-ever national TV commercial featuring third-party businesses that sell on Amazon.

With more than a million small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. selling on Amazon, the ad gives consumers a glimpse into a real business on Amazon and how Amazon is actually a ‘big collection of small’ businesses. The spot shows how Amazon helps businesses get their products to customers all over the world.

“Since we started selling on Amazon in October 2016, our sales have nearly doubled,” said Holly Rutt, co-founder of Little Flower Soap Co., the Chelsea, Michigan business owner featured in the national TV ad.

“Due to our success, we have been able to hire new team members from our community, including full and part time jobs. We believe that customers like to know the story behind what they’re buying. When there is worry about creating jobs, it’s reassuring for customers to know their purchases are helping sustain jobs in the U.S.,” Rutt said.

Earlier this year, Amazon said small and medium-sized businesses selling on the ecommerce platform are estimated to have created more than 900,000 jobs worldwide. In 2017, more than 300,000 U.S.-based small and medium-sized businesses started selling on Amazon.