More than 1.9 million small and medium-sized businesses, content creators, and developers in the U.S. are currently working with Amazon
Small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores have created an estimated 1.6 million jobs worldwide, up from 900,000 in 2017
Thousands of independent authors earned more than $50,000, with more than a thousand surpassing $100,000 in 2018 royalties
Amazon gave more than $500 million in AWS credits in 2018 to help startups accelerate their growth and development
New “Build Your Business with Amazon” website gives small and medium-sized businesses, content creators, and developers a one-stop destination to start or grow a business with Amazon
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2019-- Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) today published the 2019 SMB Impact Report highlighting how the company benefits the millions of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), content creators, and developers in the U.S. and worldwide working with Amazon. SMBs are growing their businesses with Amazon by selling in Amazon’s stores, publishing via Kindle Direct Publishing, using Amazon Web Services, as well as operating as a delivery service provider and building Alexa skills and devices. This year’s report revealed findings from across Amazon’s businesses, including: More than 1.9 million SMBs, content creators, and developers in the U.S. are currently working with Amazon; SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores have created an estimated 1.6 million jobs worldwide, up from 900,000 in 2017; thousands of independent authors earned more than $50,000, with more than a thousand surpassing $100,000 in royalties in 2018; Amazon gave more than $500 million in AWS credits to help startups accelerate their growth and development in 2018.
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The 2019 Amazon SMB Impact Report highlights how millions of small and medium-sized businesses are growing with Amazon. (Photo: Business Wire)
View the full 2019 Amazon SMB Impact Report, here.
“Amazon’s mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. Among the customers we’re focused on are small businesses and entrepreneurs. As we work to help them grow their businesses, we are making big investments: in our delivery network, data centers, AI research, robotics. Since 2011, we’ve invested tens of billions to help SMBs succeed working with Amazon,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO, Amazon Worldwide Consumer. “Amazon is inspired by the type of courage and inventiveness that makes entrepreneurs tick. And our customers benefit from the products, books, videos and skills they produce. We salute the millions of entrepreneurs, creators, and developers around the world whose impressive efforts are summarized in this report.”
Amazon empowers small and medium-sized businesses to succeed in the digital economy – selling their products online, starting their own company to deliver packages to Amazon customers, leveraging cloud services to quickly launch and grow their businesses, building Alexa skills to reach customers, and even publishing their own books. The 2019 Amazon SMB Impact Report findings included:
SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores in the U.S. and worldwide are growing
- Third-party gross physical merchandise sales – primarily comprised of SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores – surpassed $160 billion in 2018 and make up more than half of the units sold in Amazon’s stores.
- In 2018, the number of SMBs eclipsing $1 million in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide grew by 20 percent.
- On average in 2018, U.S.-based SMBs sold more than 4,000 items per minute in Amazon’s stores and earned more than $90,000.
- In 2018, Amazon lent U.S.-based SMBs more than $1 billion to build inventory and support their Amazon stores.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is enabling authors to publish and distribute their books to millions of readers around the world
- In 2018, authors earned more than $260 million from the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Global Fund, totaling more than $840 million since the launch of Kindle Unlimited.
- Since launch in 2007, hundreds of thousands of authors from around the world have self-published millions of books through KDP.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is helping hundreds of thousands of SMBs and startups launch and scale their businesses
- Tens of thousands of startups take advantage of specifically tailored programs providing the resources they need to quickly get started on AWS – including credits, training, and support.
- In 2018, Amazon gave more than $500 million in AWS credits to help startups accelerate their growth and development as they build their business.
Builders and developers are shaping the future of Alexa
- Third-party developers have built more than 90,000 Alexa skills.
- More than 90 percent of the Alexa-enabled products that launched in 2018 were built by someone other than Amazon.
- The Alexa Fund has invested in more than 60 companies building with Alexa, and launched programs like the Alexa Accelerator and Alexa Fellowship to provide additional support to early-stage startups working with voice and AI.
To help support SMBs, content creators, and developers that are interested in working with Amazon, the new “Build Your Business with Amazon” website provides information on how to achieve success with help from Amazon. The company launched the new website to give businesses, entrepreneurs, authors, and developers a one-stop destination that curates many of the opportunities available to start or grow a business with Amazon. Visitors to the site will learn how to open a store with Amazon and sell products to millions of customers worldwide, earn referral fees by spreading the word about those products, and work independently delivering Amazon packages to customers. Developers can learn how to earn money building apps and skills for AWS and Alexa, while authors can find access to self-publish their own books or movies directly to customers. Gamers can even earn money while playing Zelda with Twitch. Visit the new “Build Your Business with Amazon” website to learn more.
To learn more about the millions of SMBs, content creators, and developers worldwide working with Amazon and view the full 2019 Amazon SMB Impact Report, visit: aboutamazon.com/smallbusiness.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190507005381/en/
Source: Amazon.com, Inc.
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