Twenty-four years ago, Amazon welcomed independent sellers to sell in our store, providing them access to a global customer base, reaching hundreds of millions of customers worldwide, and unlocking a wide selection of products for customers delivered with unprecedented shipping speeds. Our mission since Day One has been to enable the long-term success of our selling partners—from small to large businesses—by providing the most trusted shopping and selling experience and by providing powerful solutions for accelerating our selling partners’ growth.
Today, more than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. The small businesses selling and flourishing in Amazon’s store are also at the heart of their local communities, creating jobs and building economic opportunity—and they include many women, military-family, Black, and Hispanic-owned businesses as well as artisans who create handcrafted goods. Selling in Amazon’s store fuels growth in local communities around the country and has enabled independent sellers to employ more than 1.8 million people in the U.S., including jobs that are responsible for managing, operating, and supporting sellers’ efforts to sell through Amazon’s store.
Toyin Omisore, owner and CEO (right), Roam LoudAmazon has released its annual Small Business Empowerment Report, which further highlights how Amazon’s ongoing investments make it possible for sellers across the country in cities both large and small to grow and achieve success. As detailed in the 2023 report, hundreds of millions of customers purchased from small and medium-sized businesses and independent sellers sold more items year-over-year in Amazon’s store, fueling the growth of these businesses and directly benefiting their local communities, signifying the important partnership between small and medium-sized businesses and Amazon.
Here are 10 top takeaways from Amazon’s 2023 Small Business Empowerment Report.
1. More than 10,000 independent sellers surpassed $1 million in sales in Amazon’s store in 2023 for the first time
Amazon invests billions of dollars in people, resources, and services that support entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. This includes assisting sellers when they are just getting started, supporting them as they continue to grow and thrive, and helping them scale and expand globally. In 2023, independent sellersin the U.S. grew sales to more than 4.5 billion items—an average of 8,600 every minute—and averaged more than $250,000 in annual sales.
Steve (left) and Heidi Nolan (right), owners, Spice Isle Sauces2. Hundreds of millions of customers purchased from the small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s store
Customer needs and shopping habits have evolved over the past 24 years, and Amazon’s continued investments and support has helped independent sellers advance and achieve success through this change. One of the many ways we support small businesses is through powerful discoverability features like the Small Business Search filter and the Support Small shopping page, which help customers more easily discover a unique selection of incredible products from small business brands and artisans while making a real impact for U.S.-based small businesses and their local communities.
3. Over 330 million items were exported by U.S.-based sellers to customers in over 130 countries globally
Amazon provides independent sellers with a variety of tools and services that simplify critical aspects of selling to customers around the world. Sellers can access Amazon’s state-of-the-art international logistic capabilities and leverage selling tools to help simplify listing products across countries with automated translation of product detail pages and currency conversion capabilities.
4. Independent sellers in Amazon’s store employed more than 1.8 million people in the U.S. to support their Amazon-related business
Selling in Amazon’s store has enabled independent sellers to employ over 1.8 million people in the U.S., including jobs that are responsible for managing, operating, and supporting their efforts to sell through Amazon’s store and span a range of industries from manufacturing to technology. By providing avenues for upward mobility and skill development, small businesses play a pivotal role in promoting economic vitality, fueling economic opportunities around the country.
Femi Oyenekan (right), founder and CEO, Simpleaf5. More than 100,000 independent sellers have used one or more of Amazon’s generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) listing tools
Amazon is actively investing in and developing powerful new AI tools and capabilities to help sellers tackle a range of tasks and challenges. Tools like AI image generation lets sellers rapidly and easily create custom lifestyle images for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display campaigns at no additional cost. Sellers are leveraging AI to easily create high-quality product detail pages with only a few words that describe a seller's product, which our generative AI powered tools use to create compelling product titles, descriptions, and other product details. We also now offer the ability for sellers to simply upload an image of their product and use generative AI to automatically create their product title, description, and even more product attributes.
6. Brand owners grew sales more than 22% year-over-year
More than 100,000 new brands launched in Amazon’s store in 2023 and all brand owners in Amazon’s store grew sales by more than 22% year-over-year. Amazon provides entrepreneurs access to powerful technologies, tools, and resources, including access to capital, fast and cost-effective shipping and fulfillment solutions, ongoing education, advanced marketing, innovations in brand protection, and much more that fuel a brand’s growth and success.
Ashley Paguyo (left) and Ahmed El Shourbagy (right), co-founders, Lucy & Co.7. Sellers in California supported the most jobs for their Amazon-related business
The 10 states where independent sellers supported the most jobs in 2023 were: California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.
8. Independent sellers in rural areas grew sales by more than 60% year-over-year
In 2023, sellers in rural areas, including parts of Alaska, Florida, Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah, collectively achieved more than 60% year-over-year sales growth in Amazon’s store.
9. The number of independent sellers selling in Amazon’s store grew faster in Maine than any other state
The five states with the fastest-growing number of independent sellers in Amazon’s store were Maine, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
10. Customers love shopping for Health & Personal Care, and Beauty
The five most shopped categories from U.S. sellers in Amazon’s store were Health & Personal Care, Beauty, Home, Grocery, and Apparel.
Dr. Noreen Galaria, co-founder, Inner GlowAmazon’s investments and dedication to the success of small businesses provides entrepreneurs access to powerful technologies, fast and cost-effective shipping and fulfillment solutions, ongoing education, innovations in brand building, advanced marketing and advertising tools, and solutions that enable even the most remote rural businesses to reach a global customer base. Our success is based on the success of the partnership we have with so many amazing small and medium-sized business owners, and we are committed to the success of our selling partners. We are excited to continue innovating to help even more small businesses grow into thriving success stories.
Learn more in our 2023 Small Business Empowerment Report and view this interactive map that highlights exciting small business success stories from across the U.S.
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