While Amazon celebrates its small business partners every day, National Small Business Week gives us a special opportunity to honor them and demonstrate our steadfast commitment to their success.
Twenty-four years ago, Amazon made the decision to open our store to independent sellers and to help them sell directly to customers. 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 thriving in Amazon’s store are at the heart of their local communities. They are neighborhood shop owners, innovators who have created entirely new brands and products, rural business owners that are now able to reach customers around the world, employers providing great jobs in their local communities, and so much more.
This year, we were proud to again cosponsor National Small Business Week to recognize the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. As part of our sponsorship, Amazon participated in a virtual summit, hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration and SCORE, where small business owners and entrepreneurs were able to access free educational webinars, business resources, and networking opportunities to help fuel their success. Throughout the week, we also joined events in cities across the country to celebrate local, award-winning small businesses and share tools and resources to promote small business growth.
We are inspired by small businesses and want to see them succeed. That’s why we work year-round and invest in tools and services that empower small businesses to establish and build their brands, connect with more customers, and create jobs in their communities.
Amazon offers thousands of hours of free, educational content for small businesses at all stages of their entrepreneurial journey. For example, last year we introduced the expanded Amazon Small Business Academy, a free digital resource for entrepreneurs to learn foundational skills to start, build, or launch their business. We are also a proud member of the Small Business Digital Alliance, a co-sponsorship agreement between the U.S. Small Business Administration and Business Forward to help small businesses connect with digital tools and reach new customers. Last year, we also joined the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration in a strategic partnership, GoGlobal with Commerce and Amazon, to help small businesses across the U.S. expand their businesses globally and increase sales.
We also make it easy for customers to discover and shop from small businesses in the Amazon store through features like our Small Business Search filter and the Support Small shopping page.
At the National Small Business Week Virtual Summit, Amazon hosted a webinar titled “Leveraging E-Commerce to Scale Your Business,” highlighting three successful entrepreneurs who have utilized e-commerce to launch and grow their businesses. The panel, moderated by Abby Malchow, manager of small business partnerships at Amazon, offered helpful tips from Amazon selling partners Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang, co-founders of The Woobles, and Calvin Quallis, founder and CEO of Scotch Porter.
Watch the full discussion and read more about the inspiring small business selling partners featured in Amazon’s National Small Business Week webinar.
Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang, The Woobles
Justine Tiu and Adrian Zhang are co-founders of The Woobles, which sells learn-to-crochet kits for beginners. The husband-and-wife team left their careers in the corporate world to launch The Woobles in 2020, with the fundamental belief that it’s never too late to learn a new skill. Since starting the business in their garage, Justine and Adrian have built The Woobles into multi-national brand, reaching customers through ecommerce and physical retail stores across the U.S. The duo now oversees a team of more than 25 employees and continues to grow in their expanded warehouse facility in Cary, North Carolina.
Calvin Quallis, Scotch Porter
Calvin Quallis is the founder and CEO of Scotch Porter, an award-winning men’s grooming and wellness company. As a kid spending time in his mom’s beauty parlor and barbershop, and later owning his own barbershop, Calvin learned the transformative power of self-care and making people feel better about themselves—a principle that is at the core of Scotch Porter. Calvin launched the brand in 2015, and now sells over 20 multi-purpose products that reach customers through e-commerce and physical store shelves nationwide. Calvin also created the Scotch Porter Impact Fund, which has impacted over 76,000 lives, donating a portion of the company’s sales to efforts to uplift the communities they serve.
