A Mother-Daughter Bond Turned into a Successful Business

Susan Robinson began teaching her daughter, Sara, how to sew when Sara was seven. Sara first loved sewing dresses for her American Girl Dolls, and then she started designing and sewing aprons. After posting some of her designs on Facebook and getting positive feedback from family and friends, Susan and Sara decided to create an apron business called “Sara Sews.”

What started as a dining room table hobby is now an online hit. Susan does much of the work during school hours, but Sara always helps mom after finishing their homework, and her older sister Jordan helps out on weekends. 

Sara Sews primarily sells online via the Amazon and Etsy marketplaces. Selling on Amazon is critical, thanks to its millions of shoppers all over the world. Sara Sews also uses Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to handle warehousing, shipping, and customer service. Since FBA is integrated with Prime, Sara Sews can guarantee fast deliveries that Prime customers love and appreciate. FBA is a huge help for Susan and her family because they don’t have to spend time and money packing and labeling boxes or standing in line at the post office or FedEx waiting to ship their products. Their money saved through FBA has allowed Sara Sews to hire more workers, and sales continue to increase.

Though business is good, Susan is worried about S.2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would force Amazon to separate FBA from Amazon Prime. If the law requires Amazon to permit small sellers to use other fulfillment services (UPS, FedEx, etc.), then Amazon cannot guarantee delivery times and is likely to eliminate small sellers from the marketplace, which would really hurt Sara Sews.  

Susan hopes Congress will reject S.2992 and remember that Amazon helps small businesses like Sara Sews accomplish big things.