Amazon Is Open for Small Business
Does the famous internet marketplace help or hinder small businesses’ efforts to remain competitive in the digital age? Googling “Amazon” and “small business” reveals pages upon pages of debate. While some may argue that Amazon is a harbinger of doom for small business, the data points to a more mutually beneficial scenario:
Small businesses drive Amazon’s growth – and thrive thanks to Amazon’s e-commerce functions.
Read on to see how the data breaks down.
Driving Growth
In 2018, 58% of paid units were sold by third party sellers. Amazon also reported this year that 1.9 million small and medium-sized businesses had generated more than $160 billion in 2018.
Given these numbers, it is in Amazon’s best interest to support small businesses – they make up the majority of the company’s sales.
Thriving Small Biz
Over two-thirds of small business owners who sell products online say that Amazon has positively impacted their sales. When small businesses make the pivot from tired mail-order catalogs to seamless e-commerce, they increase their ROI and gain a competitive edge. According to Small Business Trends, 60% of small businesses who sell products online generate over half of their online sales from marketplaces like Amazon.
What’s more, small business hiring continues to reach historic records. As Amazon continues to grow, so does demand for employees that can help small businesses create products for a wider, more easily accessible audience base.
Amazon’s proliferation has changed the selling landscape for small business, but not for the worse. A flourishing digital marketplace is something for small business owners to embrace as an opportunity to reach new customers, increase sales and remain competitive in an increasingly connected world.
