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)–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.
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
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.
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