Small is beautiful
Amazon has announced that small businesses and entrepreneurs using its marketplaces sold more than 2bn items in a “record-breaking” first half of 2017. In a statement issued today (31 July), the online retail giant also claimed that “more than half of the items sold on Amazon worldwide are from small businesses and entrepreneurs” and “sales grew by more than 60% for small businesses and entrepreneurs on Prime Day 2017”.
Peter Faricy, Vice President for Amazon Marketplace, commented: “We started working with small businesses to sell online back in 2000 and have helped hundreds of thousands achieve success. Amazon Marketplace has grown so significantly that sales by small businesses now account for over half of the unit sales on Amazon sites around the world, and 2017 is off to a record-start with over 2 bn units sold.”
There is some marketing going on here, of course. The media often depicts the retail sector as a battleground between the independent bricks-and-mortar “Davids” and the online “Goliath”, Amazon. Not surprisingly, Amazon would prefer – with some justice, perhaps – to cast itself in the role of a friendly giant that can actually work with SMEs and support their ambitions for growth.
