Products from third-party sellers make up nearly 60% of the units sold on Amazon, and most of the approximately 2 million sellers doing business on the platform are small or medium-sized. According to the company, in the United States, sellers sold more than 3.9 billion units of his product in 2021.
EcommerceBytes checked in with Amazon’s Director of Small Business Empowerment, Keri Cusick, to find out how small sellers are performing during the recent holiday shopping season and how the marketplace is doing to programs that support small business growth in the year ahead. I made sure I invested.
One very visible initiative is the new small business badge that shoppers will see. This identifies the small business brands and artisan products you sell in your Amazon store. According to Cusick, this will allow customers to discover, shop and support small businesses for the first time in holiday shopping.
Cusick joined Amazon in June 2014. Prior to leading Small Business Empowerment, he worked on teams that empowered and supported Amazon sellers, protecting customers, brands, sales partners, and the company itself from fraud, counterfeiting, and abuse.
Her current focus is on driving success for Amazon’s small business partners, working with teams across Amazon to deliver programs and investments that support their continued growth.
holiday shopping season
Cusick told EcommerceBytes that small purchases in Amazon’s stores have a big impact on small businesses and their communities. “Nearly 500 million items were purchased from small businesses in the United States alone this holiday season. It was exciting to see how our customers helped small businesses and generated over $1 billion in sales for small businesses in the United States during the time period. “
What made a difference for small businesses selling on Amazon this holiday shopping season?
Several factors are key to enabling the continued success of Amazon’s small business sales partners, she said. Chief among them are the many ways Amazon has invested in helping small businesses across the country and around the world, helping them reach better customers every day.
In addition to the new Small Business badge, Cusick said Amazon will spotlight small business products in various gift guides and curated listings to help customers buy gifts and deals from great small businesses. I’m here.
“This includes our Small Business Gift Guide, a curated selection of small business gifts from celebrities and entrepreneurs like Kristin Cavallari and Aisha Currie, our 2022 Toys We Love List and our 2022 Holiday Kids Gift Book Small Business Selection. and sent to millions of people — customers across the United States,” she said.
Additionally, this year’s Oprah favorites list is again available exclusively on amazon.com/oprah and the Amazon Shopping app, with 84% of Oprah’s selected items this year coming from small businesses. “
Cusick also mentioned the first-ever Prime Early Access sale (or holiday kickoff event). This, she said, helped her members of Prime kick-start her holiday shopping season and realize significant savings.
During the event, Prime members ordered over 100 million items from Amazon’s reseller partners. Most of them are small and medium enterprises.
“A lot of small businesses have shown a strong boost. For example, Not Parent Approved saw a 500% increase in sales on the first day of sales,” said Cusick.
1 year from now
What does Amazon see about the challenges and opportunities for small businesses in 2023, and what is Amazon doing to help sellers face them?
According to Cusick, Amazon works every day to provide its reseller partners with powerful and effective tools and services that help them reduce their operational burden, build their brand, and connect with customers. Grow your business during the busy shopping season and beyond.
And despite inflation-related challenges, Amazon sellers are showing strong sales and resilience in the face of the current economic climate, she said.
“Throughout the holiday season, we continued to hear success stories from our small business sales partners. We can scale quickly.”
Cusick says some entrepreneurs are excited about how easy it is to start selling on Amazon, and how they can take advantage of the many tools, resources, and programs available to them to sell on Amazon’s store. He said they may not realize how quickly they can grow their business.
“Between the powerful suite of tools and services we offer, our lending program to help you get started, and our free educational services like Amazon Small Business Academy and Amazon Seller University, we work hard to make it easy for anyone to get started. are working on.”
Last year, Amazon published its 2022 Small Business Empowerment Report to show how it supports small businesses and brands. Initiatives mentioned in the report include the Black Business Accelerator and a fundraising program. Together, Amazon and its third-party lending partners have lent $1.4 billion to help small businesses grow in the United States.
We also continue to expand and enhance our Amazon Small Business Academy and Amazon Seller University, which offer digital and in-person educational resources. Over 600,000 hours of educational content were delivered last year.
Amazon also offers a Community Lending program. The program partners with Lendistry to help urban and rural small businesses in socially and economically deprived communities through short-term loans at competitive and affordable interest rates. Since its inception, the program has loaned more than $35 million to over 800 sellers and plans to lend more than $150 million to small businesses on Amazon over the next three years.
Attracted to empowering small businesses
Cusick was born into an entrepreneurial family and grew up helping out in the family business. “I know that your family, community, and future depend on the success of your own business. Focus your time and energy every day on how you can start and grow your business. I’m excited about the opportunity…it’s better for small business owners around the world,” she said.
“More than 20 years after opening our virtual shelves to independent reseller partners, it is heartening to see entrepreneurs and small businesses continuing to thrive on Amazon.”
According to Cusick, customers visit amazon.com/supportsmall all year round to enjoy the convenience of shopping in Amazon’s stores while discovering millions of exciting products and deals from small business owners. I can.
Ina Steiner
