Amazon is Investing in Sellers. Here’s How You Can Benefit.
When I was six years old, I cut off all of my Barbie’s hair and tried to sell it to my family members as tiny wigs. As a young entrepreneur, I was surprised at the lack of interest in my product, the dismal ROI, and the fact that my mom was very angry that I had ruined my dolls.
Small businesses today are also facing frustrating times. There were 30 million small businesses that were in the US before the pandemic hit. Many lost business and shuttered; causing a 30.5% decline in small business revenue as of Feb 4th. 134 billion dollars in Payroll Protection Plan loans (SBA-backed loans that help businesses keep their workforce employed during the pandemic) have been (slowly and crappily) handed out, people have been reminded to shop small, yet things are still low-key horrible. Often the smaller businesses (think- minority owned, sole-proprietors, independent contractors) were limited or outright excluded from PPP support.
In response to this, the current PPP is changing to specifically help small businesses (with 20 employees or less) by providing an exclusive window to apply for funding. Bigger businesses will have to just wait their damn turn.
Many businesses couldn’t keep their brick and mortars open, and had to pivot quickly into selling exclusively online. Amazon has responded with tremendous support for small businesses. They began by investing $5 billion in small business success and stability in December of last year.
Now, they have gotten more creative and use features like Amazon Small Business Academy and Amazon Launchpad, and Innovation Grants to help small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees and a total annual revenue of less than 50 million dollars) learn and grow their companies by providing classes, mentorship, and opportunities for marketing on their platform. They are also loaning money to sellers. Bless their hearts.
If only Amazon had been around to guide me in my Barbie Wig endeavor. I’d be giving digital TED talks from my yacht and explaining how I moved to the online marketplace after frustration with my in-person wig sales. And maybe my mom and I would be on speaking terms today.
