Exclusive Q&A: Amazon explains key role third-party sellers play on its platform
Amazon is making heavy financial and technology investments into the small- and medium-sized retailers that sell on its Amazon Marketplace platform.
Chain Store Age recently spoke with Claire O’Donnell, director, selling partner empowerment, communities and trust, Amazon, about how and why Amazonn prominently included small- and medium-sized third-party sellers in its e-commerce strategy. Amazon actively assists third-party retailers (primarily small-to-medium-sized businesses) to sell on its Amazon Marketplace e-commerce platform with at least 150 tools and services, and regularly adds new offerings.
Some of its more recent offerings for third-party sellers include launching Amazon Seller Wallet, a solution intended to provide the e-tail giant’s selling partners more capability to determine how much and when to convert their funds. The company also just introduced Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), which gives sellers the option to store their inventory in Amazon distribution centers and then seamlessly replenish to Amazon fulfillment centers
Why does Amazon see small and medium-sized sellers as an important part of its overall strategy?
Amazon works with nearly 2 million independent selling partners in the U.S., and the vast majority are small- and medium-sized businesses. Amazon sellers are responsible for more than half of Amazon’s physical product sales, making them incredibly important to Amazon, its customers, and local communities.
Supporting small- and medium-sized business sellers is fundamental to our work. Our success depends on their success.
How does Amazon support small- and medium-sized sellers?
Every year, Amazon invests billions of dollars in selling partner success to help sellers protect and build their brands, benefit from innovative capabilities that help them reach more customers, and create jobs in their communities.
We offer a set of free tools, services, and insights to help selling partners launch and grow their business, and we are committed to developing new tools and enhancing features based on feedback from our seller community.
To further support sellers, for a third year, Amazon will bring together its selling community at Amazon Accelerate, our annual seller conference. And for the first time, sellers will join us in Seattle to attend the conference in-person. At Accelerate, in-person and virtual attendees can connect with and learn from fellow sellers, Amazon senior leaders, and service providers.
Are there any future plans for your small- and medium-sized seller program you can discuss?
Last year, Amazon announced several new tools, programs, and services, including Product Opportunity Explorer to help sellers identify new high-potential products to sell based on unmet customer demand, Local Selling to empower small businesses to reach more local customers with the option to ‘buy online, pick up in store,’ and Global Selling tools to enable U.S. small businesses to grow their export sales, among others.
Earlier this year, we also launched the Small Business badge – which connects purpose-driven customers with small business brands on Amazon – and have had great feedback from customers and small businesses alike. This year at Accelerate 2022, we have new product launches related to Buy with Prime, New Seller Incentives, Amazon Small Business Academy, and more.