Amazon independent sellers joined the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. in Washington, DC, for the organization’s national conference ahead of National Black Business Month, held annually in August to recognize and honor the many contributions of Black business owners.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are 3.5 million Black-owned businesses in the United States. They collectively employ more than 1.2 million people, representing an increase of more than 7 percent in people employed by Black entrepreneurs compared to the previous year. In 2023, businesses owned by Black women generated $98.3 billion in revenue, according to the National Women’s Business Council.
Among those entrepreneurs are Nancey Harris, co-founder and COO of Vontélle Eyewear, and Adrienne Walker, co-owner of Blue Henry, a gourmet garnish and dehydrated fruit producer. Both business leaders--along with Danyel Surrency Jones, head of Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator--spoke on a panel event at the national conference on how they are leveraging Amazon tools and resources to grow their thriving businesses.
“Amazon is very intentional with learning lessons, creating technology, and experimenting to understand how we can meet our customers where they are and help them shop according to their values,” said Surrency Jones, adding that Amazon is continuing to invest in diverse suppliers, expand seller reach through new discoverability strategies, and build pipelines of support to help Black-owned businesses scale globally.
Launched in 2019 by Nancey Harris and Tracy Green, Vontélle Eyewear offers a collection of vibrant and fashion-forward eyewear handcrafted with traditional colors and patterns that channel the African, Caribbean, and Latin heritages. Their eyewear is designed to accommodate diverse facial structures, featuring glasses with wider bridges to suit various nose shapes or with larger lenses for people with high cheekbones.
Blue Henry, a Maryland-based brand founded by Adrienne Walker, produces dehydrated fruits for snacking and gourmet garnishes mostly purchased by bars and restaurants for cocktails. The company prides itself on never using fillers, preservatives, or artificial ingredients, and prioritizes local resources for ingredient sourcing.
“We actually manufacture our own product, which means that we’ve not only built a brand, but we’ve built a capability that others are willing to pay for,” said Walker.
At the national conference, both Harris and Walker spoke about their deep commitment to community engagement and the importance of leveraging their businesses to support their communities.
There are 3.5 million Black-owned businesses in the U.S. that collectively employ more than 1.2 million people, according to the Small Business Administration.
Within the first month of launching Vontélle Eyewear, Harris and Green established a partnership with Women In Need (WIN), New York City’s largest provider of family shelter and supportive housing. Vontélle collaborates with optometrists who conduct annual visits to the housing facilities, providing free eye exams and prescription glasses to families affected by homelessness, domestic violence, and unemployment across all five boroughs of New York City.
“When people go through loss, one of the main things that they lose are their glasses. And you can’t function because glasses are a medical necessity,” said Harris, whose company and nonprofit were born from personal experience after losing her own home—and her eyeglasses—in a devastating fire.
Walker’s business, Blue Henry, has become a source of living-wage jobs in her local area of Capitol Heights, Maryland. The company started in a small 1,500 square foot facility in 2017 and has since moved operations to a 10,000 square foot warehouse with a team of 20 employees, all working above minimum wage.
Walker said that when she started Blue Henry, she initially thought to herself, “this would be fun, playing with cocktails.” But as her company grew, she began to realize the tremendous impact she was making on the lives of her employees.
“Now when I see employees come in and they talk about how they vacationed or how they treated somebody to get their nails done...that’s small stuff, but it is important that people are able to be able to do those sorts of things, particularly in a community like Capitol Heights that is not high income,” Walker said. “It is wonderful to be able to do that. I’m proud of that.”
Surrency Jones, an entrepreneur herself, said she was proud to recognize two companies that “are very intentional with having not only a profitable strategy, but also having a philanthropy strategy.”
Celebrate Black Business Month with Amazon! This August, we invite you to shop Black Business Accelerator brands.