Download full report
Selling Partners
Perspectives
Impact
Programs
Events
Introduction
Introduction
At a glance
At a glance
Sellers in your state
Sellers in your state
25-year timeline
25-year timeline
A transformative partnership
A transformative partnership
A level playing field
A level playing field
Meet the seller: Bluecorn Beeswax
Meet the seller: Heirloom Traditions Paint
Supporting sellers
Meet the seller: Coop Sleep Goods
Supporting sellers
Meet the seller: Planetary Designs
Local business, lasting impact
Local business, lasting impact
Local business, lasting impact
Meet the seller: Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Meet the seller: Fazit
Meet the seller: Planetary Designs
Meet the seller: Ecoslay
Meet the seller: Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Meet the seller: Fazit
Meet the seller: Ecoslay
Small Business
Empowerment
Report
25 years of seller success
Introduction
Introduction
Nearly twenty-five years ago, Amazon made a decision that would transform retail—we welcomed independent sellers to sell alongside us in our store. Today, more than 60% of the sales in the Amazon store come from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Together, we are providing customers with amazing selection, great prices, and unbelievable convenience, all while fueling success for entrepreneurs and creating millions of jobs across the country.
The numbers tell a remarkable story. Over the last 25 years, independent sellers have generated more than $2.5 trillion in sales in Amazon's store. In 2024 alone, US-based independent sellers averaged more than $290,000 in annual sales, with over 55,000 sellers generating more than $1 million in sales in Amazon’s store. The full impact extends far beyond sales figures. In 2024, independent sellers in Amazon’s store employed over 2 million people in the US, strengthening local economies and creating opportunity in communities across the nation.
The success of our partnership is made possible through our continued investment in innovative tools and services, which leverage advanced technology to help independent sellers compete and succeed in today's dynamic retail environment. Through powerful tools like Fulfillment by Amazon, our AI-powered Seller Assistant, Brand Registry, Amazon Ads, generative AI-powered listing and content creation experiences, and so much more, independent sellers now have access to capabilities that were once only available to the largest retailers. Collectively, these innovations are creating a more level playing field that fuels the success of small business owners and enables them to spend more time inventing and launching great products that delight customers.
There continues to be a rapid pace of innovation across the retail industry, and independent sellers have more choices than ever for where and how to sell their products. That's why we have continued to invest in solutions that support independent sellers across their sales channels. Solutions such as Supply Chain by Amazon, Amazon’s Multi-Channel Distribution and Multi-Channel Fulfillment, and Buy with Prime are just some of the great examples of how we leverage the fast and reliable logistics and delivery capabilities that independent sellers love when selling in Amazon’s store and beyond. These solutions are designed to help independent sellers succeed wherever they choose to sell.
Our conviction in our partnership with independent sellers has never been stronger, and we’re continuing to make massive investments in innovations that can further small business success. The seller stories in this report—from Bluecorn Beeswax in rural Colorado to Ecoslay in Atlanta—provide just a small sample but still inspiring glimpse into how our partnership creates value for customers and drives success for small business owners. Each success story represents jobs created, dreams realized, and communities strengthened.
This report is a testament to the power of the partnership between Amazon and America's small businesses. As we get ready to celebrate 25 years together, we have a lot to be proud of already, but we’re confident that the adventure ahead will be even more exciting than the journey that brought us here. Together with independent sellers, we're writing the story of the greatest partnership in the history of the retail industry. And we’re still just getting started—or as we like to say, it’s still Day 1
Nearly twenty-five years ago, Amazon made a decision that would transform retail—we welcomed independent sellers to sell alongside us in our store. Today, more than 60% of the sales in the Amazon store come from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Together, we are providing customers with amazing selection, great prices, and unbelievable convenience, all while fueling success for entrepreneurs and creating millions of jobs across the country.
The numbers tell a remarkable story. Over the last 25 years, independent sellers have generated more than $2.5 trillion in sales in Amazon's store. In 2024 alone, US-based independent sellers averaged more than $290,000 in annual sales, with over 55,000 sellers generating more than $1 million in sales in Amazon’s store. The full impact extends far beyond sales figures. In 2024, independent sellers in Amazon’s store employed over 2 million people in the US, strengthening local economies and creating opportunity in communities across the nation.
The success of our partnership is made possible through our continued investment in innovative tools and services, which leverage advanced technology to help independent sellers compete and succeed in today's dynamic retail environment. Through powerful tools like Fulfillment by Amazon, our AI-powered Seller Assistant, Brand Registry, Amazon Ads, generative AI-powered listing and content creation experiences, and so much more, independent sellers now have access to capabilities that were once only available to the largest retailers. Collectively, these innovations are creating a more level playing field that fuels the success of small business owners and enables them to spend more time inventing and launching great products that delight customers.
Thank you,
Dharmesh M. Mehta
Vice President
Worldwide Selling Partner Services Amazon
Dharmesh M. Mehta
Vice President
Worldwide Selling Partner Services Amazon
1/3
2/3
3/3
At a glance
Download
Selling in Amazon's store
More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store are from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses.
Independent sellers in the US
Independent sellers in the US
averaged
more than $290,000
in annual sales in Amazon's store in 2024.
Since launching in 2011, Amazon Lending has helped small and medium-sized businesses get access to over $15 billion in capital to help their businesses grow.
Over the last 25 years, US-based independent sellers have exported more than 2 billion items globally across Amazon’s stores.
In 2024, independent sellers
employed over 2 million people in the US
to support their
Amazon-related businesses.
Over the past year, Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment has
helped more than 300,000 sellers worldwide
fulfill orders for customers purchasing from sales channels beyond Amazon’s store.
Shipping with Fulfillment by Amazon costs 70% less per unit
than comparable premium options offered by other major US carriers.
Over the last 25 years, independent sellers have generated
more than
$2.5 trillion in sales
in Amazon’s store.
Independent sellers in the US support local jobs—
more than 65%
employ at least one person within 50 miles of their primary business location.
Sellers in your state
Planetary Designs - Bonner, MT
Heirloom Traditions Paint - Taylorsville, KY
Bluecorn Beeswax – Montrose, CO
Hey Buddy Hey Pal - Amarillo, TX
2006
2011
2000
2009
2015
2002
2017
2023
Meet the seller
Featured seller story
Featured seller story
Featured seller story
Featured seller story
Selling Partner Appstore
Fulfillment by Amazon
Fulfillment By Amazon solves rural manufacturer's dirt road dilemma
The power of partnership: Two decades of building national success and local impact
Scaling with Amazon, a small Montana business reaches the world.
Fulfilling their potential: Hey Buddy Hey Pal scales with Amazon
While growing its Bonner-based operations, Planetary Design has leveraged the digital tools Amazon provides to independent sellers to reach customers worldwide. “We can launch in a new country and start seeing results almost immediately,” Nepstad noted.
"Our product reviews carry over, our advertising strategies transfer seamlessly, and Amazon's tools help us navigate everything from translations to regulations in each new country."
That consistency has proven crucial for the company's expansion. In Germany, where coffee culture runs deep, Planetary Design saw 45% growth last year. Similar success followed in other European countries, Asia and Canada, with sales in four out of five overseas stores growing faster than their US business in 2024.
Those global customers have also enabled faster product innovation. When Planetary Design develops new coffee-related products, they can test reception across different countries simultaneously. “We can see real-time customer feedback from around the world,” Nepstad explained. “That kind of insight used to be available only to massive corporations.”
For Nepstad, who spent 18 years at Nestlé before leading Planetary Design, the accessibility of international commerce represents a fundamental shift in opportunities for small businesses. “Twenty years ago, if you wanted to sell internationally, you needed offices in every country, relationships with local retailers, and massive marketing budgets,” he said. “Today, a company from anywhere in America can reach customers worldwide with Amazon.”
The success has allowed Planetary Design to maintain its commitment to quality while growing its workforce in Montana.
Looking ahead, Nepstad sees opportunity where coffee consumption is growing rapidly. “We're watching countries that traditionally favor tea, like India, where coffee culture is exploding,” he said. “The ability to enter new countries efficiently, test customer response, and scale accordingly – that's revolutionary for a small business from Montana.”
“I was living in this woodsy cabin and getting headaches from kerosene lanterns,” said Kornbluh. “I started making beeswax candles and instantly soldthem to my community of friends and the health food store. I loved the craft. I loved the commerce.”
Through the 1990s, fueled by Kornbluh's passion and commitment, Bluecorn Beeswax evolved from a local craft to a growing business. But traveling to trade shows in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta wasn't the future Kornbluh envisioned.
“I wanted to be with my family enjoying the mountains of Southern Colorado and focusing on quality of life,” he explained. “So, I pulled back from B2B and instead focused on direct-to-consumer. And then, we had this idea to try Amazon.”
For Kornbluh, Amazon represented something revolutionary, he watched as it evolved from its earliest days. “When Amazon first opened their store to small businesses like ours, it was pretty rudimentary," he recalled. "Just a simple page where you could list your products. But I decided to take a chance, and as Amazon grew, so did we. The concept that we could reach customers nationwide from our rural location was a game changer."
Between 2006 and 2010, as Amazon's search capabilities grew more sophisticated, Bluecorn Beeswax found themselves perfectly positioned. “We were producing what was essentially a generic product–beeswax candles,” Kornbluh explained. “When customers typed 'beeswax candles' into Amazon's search bar, they found us. We were one of the first, and our commitment to quality kept us at the top. The reviews and repeat purchases just reinforced our position.”
In those early days, Kornbluh realized he had tapped into something powerful: a way for small businesses to compete nationally based on the quality of their product. As their success grew, he looked for ways to scale their fulfillment operations to match their increasing sales.
Then, with one phone call, everything changed.
“Amazon called and asked if we knew about Fulfillment by Amazon,” Kornbluh remembered. “This guy converted one of our products to FBA in real time. We printed packing labels, shipped that product to a warehouse, all within 30 minutes—and overnight it changed our direct-to-consumer sales world.”
The turning point came with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a partnership that not only kept Heirloom Traditions' doors open but catapulted the Kentucky business onto the national stage. FBA provided the sophisticated logistics infrastructure Blankenship's paint company needed, handling the complex challenges of storing, picking, packing, and shipping liquid products. All she needed to do was get her product into Amazon’s network, and FBA would handle the rest.
For a small manufacturer beginning to scale, this access to Amazon's nationwide fulfillment network meant she could keep her employees working while reaching customers across the country.
“Amazon levels the playing field. If you're in a small community like we are, you can scale nationwide through FBA,” Blankenship explained. “When customers see Prime, they know the product is usually going to get there in one to two days. People today value their time as money. Fast shipping matters.”
The impact was immediate and substantial. Sales grew to $4 million in their first year with FBA, then reached $10 million the following year. Instead of laying off workers, they were hiring. This rapid growth enabled Blankenship to expand her product line from a handful of items to hundreds available through Amazon, while maintaining consistent nationwide availability—a feat that would have been difficult and costly to manage without FBA.
The success through FBA led to even bigger opportunities for job creation. In 2023, Blankenship purchased the 75-year-old paint manufacturer that had been making some of their products, preserving those manufacturing jobs while securing their supply chain and adding a successful line of swimming pool paints. “We put all those products in the Amazon store, and it did millions in sales in a short selling season last year,” said Blankenship.
Today, Heirloom Traditions generates $30 million in annual revenue between the businesses. Its success has enabled a $7 million investment in new manufacturing facilities and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse with an attached retail space in Taylorsville, with 53 jobs—jobs that would have disappeared without FBA's solution to their logistics challenges. In 2021, demonstrating their commitment to the workforce that helped build the company, Blankenship converted the business to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving their workers ownership of 49% of the company.
While the boxes look different depending on the retailer, Hey Buddy Hey Pal customers get Amazon's fast shipping speeds and great customer service no matter where they purchase.
“When the orders come in, we know they'll be processed properly, shipped on time, and delivered to happy customers,” McGill explained. “That reliability has changed everything about how we grow our business”.
With Amazon MCF as their logistics backbone, Hey Buddy Hey Pal now actively pursues holiday television promotions and influencer partnerships, confidently handling surges of up to 20,000 orders per day, with same-day shipping for more than 95% of their orders.
"We went from dreading large order volumes to actively seeking them out," McGill said.
With reliable fulfillment in place, Hey Buddy Hey Pal's growth accelerated. Since starting to use Amazon MCF in 2022, they've seen 30% year-over-year growth in sales, helping drive total company revenue to $12 million last year.
The increased revenue coupled with time saved on logistics has allowed the best friends to focus on product development. They've expanded from their original Eggmazing decorator to a full line of creative products, including their successful ornament decorator which contributed to a 34% year-over-year growth in holiday sales.
“When you're not spending hours troubleshooting shipping issues, you can actually innovate,” McGill said. “Since partnering with Amazon for fulfillment, we've launched six new products, secured additional patents, and reduced our product development cycle by 60%.” Their latest innovation, the Cake-N-Bake decorator, went from concept to launch in just six months—a process that previously would have taken over a year.
As they scale, Hey Buddy Hey Pal increasingly relies on Amazon's suite of business solutions. They utilize Brand Registry to protect their intellectual property and maintain brand integrity in Amazon's store. They use advertising tools to reach new customers, and Brand Analytics to inform product development decisions.
“Our employees’ futures are tied to our success here in Taylorsville. The impact is generational. It's not just about the product that we deliver to our customers, but it's also about the people who make it happen—we're all connected,” said Blankenship.
Looking ahead, Blankenship is building out her own website to include Amazon’s “Buy with Prime” experience. Buy with Prime enables Heirloom Traditions to offer the same fast, reliable shipping on their own website that Prime customers expect from Amazon, with the same payment solutions they already use. “When customers see that Buy with Prime button on our website, it gives us immediate credibility,” Blankenship said. “They know they can trust our small business because Amazon is handling the delivery. It's going to help us scale even more.”
This next phase of growth builds on a partnership that has already redefined what's possible for small businesses and rural manufacturing.
“I couldn't grow my business without a partner like Amazon,” Blankenship said. “They solved the logistics challenges that were holding us back and made it possible for a rural Kentucky small business to compete nationally.”
As morning light streamed through the office windows, illuminating the snow-capped mountains beyond, Nepstad reflected on the journey. “We're still the same small company at heart,” he said. “We've just figured out how to share our innovation with the world.”
The impact was immediate and dramatic. “We saw our sales spike 4x in a month,” Kornbluh said. “And that was just one test product. We started converting products as fast as we possibly could to FBA. 4x, 6x, 10x. All of a sudden, we had this Amazon momentum working for us.”
The growth transformed their business.
Within 18 months of adopting FBA, their workforce doubled from 9 to 18 employees. Revenue grew steadily through the 2010s as Bluecorn adopted each new Amazon innovation. “We went from a 4,300-square-foot facility that could barely contain our inventory to needing a space three times that size,” Kornbluh said. “Each year brought new tools from Amazon–advanced advertising capabilities, enhanced analytics, improved fulfillment options – and each one helped us compete more effectively from our rural location.”
By 2019, Bluecorn had become a significant employer in their community, but it was during the pandemic that the true value of their Amazon partnership became clear.
“When our manufacturing shut down in spring 2020 due to COVID-19, we couldn't make candles for six weeks,” Kornbluh recalled. “But we had three months’ worth of inventory already stocked at Amazon. Rather than having our sales in the gutter, they doubled and tripled. By the time that inventory started waning, we were back manufacturing and restocking.”
When 2021 brought a surge of new independent sellers and competition in the candle category reached its peak, Bluecorn discovered Amazon's advertising tools would be key to unlocking their next phase of growth.
“Our return on Amazon advertising is quite high and it’s been really important in our growth” said Tessa Cheek, chief revenue officer for Bluecorn Beeswax. “About 30% of our advertising budget goes to Amazon because it's more effective than other marketing channels.” By combining Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products with strategic search optimization, Bluecorn turned a 10% decline that year into 30% year-over-year growth.
“Our return on Amazon advertising is quite high and it’s been really important in our growth” said Tessa Cheek, chief revenue officer for Bluecorn Beeswax. “About 30% of our advertising budget goes to Amazon because it's more effective than other marketing channels.” By combining Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products with strategic search optimization, Bluecorn turned a 10% decline that year into 30% year-over-year growth.
The results validated their partnership. “We started paying attention to every detail of our product listings – from product photos to descriptions,” Cheek explained. “What we realized was Amazon had already built the infrastructure we needed to succeed.”
“What impressed us most was Amazon's pace of innovation,” Kornbluh added. “We watched them continuously test and launch new features, often at a speed that seemed mind-boggling for a company of their scale. Over time, we learned to trust their insights. When they introduced new tools or features, we knew they were responding to real customer needs—needs we might not even have recognized yet as a small business. Amazon’s ability to innovate and execute made them an invaluable partner for businesses like ours.”
As their Amazon business has grown over the years, so has Bluecorn Beeswax’s wholesale business and their own direct-to-consumer channels. They employ more than 40 people—from skilled craftspeople to production and operations managers to marketing specialists, all based in Montrose, Colorado.
Their growth has funded an expansion into a 26,000-square-foot facility in downtown Montrose, featuring a café and mercantile where visitors can watch candle artisans at work. “The most gratifying work I'm doing these days is creating this community space,” Kornbluh said.
“This journey has been remarkable,” Kornbluh reflected. “From our early days with Amazon to where we are now, each step has built on the last. The candle business allowed this café space to take root and thrive, and Amazon remains a core pillar of that success. Today, we're building something even bigger–a lasting contribution to our community.”
“Each Amazon solution has strengthened our business,” McGill explained. This confidence led them to recently implement Supply Chain by Amazon (SCA), which leverages Amazon's advanced logistics, warehousing, distribution, fulfillment, and transportation to move products from factories worldwide to customers’ doors.
“The results speak for themselves. Amazon has proven themselves at every step of our growth, and SCA gives us capabilities we never thought possible as a small business.”
With SCA, Hey Buddy Hey Pal has reduced their inventory holding costs by 40% and dropped their average time to restock from 14 days down to five, increasing their inventory efficiency by 25%. These improvements have allowed them to be more responsive to customer demands and capitalize on trends faster than ever.
Looking ahead, Hey Buddy Hey Pal is preparing for their biggest year yet. “We're committed to over 30,000 units for upcoming national TV appearances,” McGill noted. “The reliability of Amazon's fulfillment network means we can confidently say yes to these opportunities. We're competing with the biggest brands in our space.”
“It's amazing what two guys from West Texas can accomplish with the right support,” McGill reflected. “In the toy industry, you have to be ready when lightning strikes. With Amazon, we're not just ready—we're one step ahead.”
More than 1 million independent sellers utilize at least one of more than 3,000 solutions listed in our Appstore or service providers featured in the Service Provider Network.
Since 2006, sellers shipped more than 80 billion units with Fulfillment by Amazon.
Selling Partner Appstore
Amazon Lending
Independent sellers join the Amazon store
Brand Registry
Fulfillment by Amazon
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment
Global Selling
Supply Chain by Amazon
The line of job applicants stretched around the building the day Heirloom Traditions Paint started hiring in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Paula Blankenship’s coveted line of ALL-IN-ONE paints transformed her into Spencer County's largest private employer. But it almost didn’t happen. In 2016, the company faced a crisis: pivot to direct-to-consumer sales or close its doors.
Thirty miles from the nearest interstate, shipping heavy, liquid products to customers individually and nationwide was nearly impossible for Blankenship. Costly, clunky, and time-consuming, fulfillment was a chokepoint to her business growth. The stakes were high—these jobs had finally given local residents an alternative to hour-long commutes to Louisville. Now their future hung in the balance.
“We are not in a handy location,” said Blankenship. “This town is not connected to infrastructure, it's just a two-lane road. Before we could even begin scaling, we had to convince national carriers to service our location. Getting pickup services was a constant challenge.”
At their new headquarters in Bonner, Montana, ten minutes outside of Missoula, Jess Nepstad demonstrated his company's signature product: an indestructible coffee storage container with a patented airless plunger system. “Most people squeeze air out of freezer bags to keep food fresh,” he said, pressing down on the Airscape’s inner lid with a satisfying whoosh. “We just made it sophisticated.”
This simple innovation from Planetary Design, a 22-person company nestled in the mountains of Western Montana, found its way into kitchens across the globe—from coffee shops in Berlin to home baristas in Tokyo. Their journey from local business to international brand illustrates what Nepstad, after two decades in the coffee industry, describes as a fundamental shift in how small businesses can go global with Amazon.
“Back in 2016, we were doing about $2 million in annual sales,” Nepstad said. “Today, we're at $10 million, with customers in multiple countries. That kind of growth wouldn't have been possible without Amazon's global selling program.”
Six times a year, Hey Buddy Hey Pal will take to TV screens, appearing on morning show segments like CBS' “Deals and Steals," and when they do, they process upwards of 16,000 orders in a single day without missing a beat. For many small businesses, this kind of sudden demand would be overwhelming. But for Curtis McGill and Scott Houdashell, it's just another successful day of operations.
“We've come a long way since our Shark Tank appearance,” McGill said with a smile. Now the #1 best-selling Easter toy in Amazon's store for the last five years, Hey Buddy Hey Pal has transformed from a Texas startup into a multi-million dollar brand by mastering what McGill referred to as “the most efficient and effective way to scale on the planet”.
Hey Buddy Hey Pal leverages Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) as their operational engine. Amazon MCF processes orders from all their sales channels—Amazon, their website, other retailers, and seasonal TV promotions—through Amazon’s nationwide fulfillment network.
When Amazon opened its store to independent sellers 25 years ago, it created new possibilities for businesses across the country. One of many amazing examples that symbolizes this opportunity is Bluecorn Beeswax who grew from a mountain-town startup into a significant employer that's building both national success and local prosperity.
Today, on any given morning in Montrose, Colorado, locals gather at a sunlit café to sip coffee and watch artisans dip beeswax candles through a glass wall. This bustling community hub—a $4.2 million business employing 40 people in a town of 30,000—represents the transformative power of a decision made 25 years ago, when Amazon first invited independent sellers into its store.
When Jon Kornbluh started making beeswax candles in his 10-by-10-foot cabin in Colorado, he wasn't thinking about building a community cornerstone. He was just trying to solve a problem.
In 2005, Amazon Prime was launched through significant investments in a logistics network that would ensure Amazon could reliably provide customers with the promise of fast, free delivery on a large selection of products. The following year, independent sellers had the option to send their inventory into Amazon’s growing network of fulfillment centers and have Amazon pick, pack, and ship their products as well as provide customer service. These services were brought together under Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to further expand the selection available for fast and free delivery to Amazon Prime customers. Independent sellers could benefit from Amazon taking on these services at a price generally far below alternatives while gaining more sales as customers preferred fast delivery. FBA not only drove business growth at a great value, but it also allowed independent sellers to offload operational fulfillment, returns, and customer service work to Amazon so sellers could focus more on other areas of scaling their business and creating new products. Over time, Amazon has continued to innovate and make FBA faster, more reliable, and with more supply chain features to better serve independent sellers. As a result, Amazon Prime now offers free delivery on more than 300 million items across 35 categories, tens of millions of which can be delivered the same or next day—which means Prime now offers 20 times more selection that can be delivered twice as fast compared to when Prime first launched in the US in 2005. A huge part of this growth has been driven by the powerful partnership between Amazon and independent sellers through FBA.
Since launching in 2011, Amazon Lending has provided over $15 billion in capital to help small and medium-sized businesses grow.
More than 1 million independent sellers utilize at least one of more than 3,000 solutions listed in our Appstore or service providers featured in the Service Provider Network.
Amazon’s Brand Registry is a free program for brand owners that provides powerful tools for protecting and building their brand’s success.
In the last 25 years, US-based independent sellers have exported more than 2 billion items globally across Amazon’s stores.
Since 2006, sellers shipped more than 80 billion units with Fulfillment by Amazon.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment uses the Amazon fulfillment network, with average “click-to-door” speeds that are over 50% faster than other retailers. ¹¹
Over 25 years, independent sellers have generated more than $2.5 trillion in sales in Amazon’s store.
Global transportation services are available for nearly 80% of independent sellers’ inventory in Fulfillment by Amazon.
In 2009, Amazon launched Amazon Marketplace Web Services Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), creating the data and technology infrastructure for independent sellers to build technology to automate key selling tasks like product listing, order management, and reporting. This data infrastructure quickly evolved to support a new industry of businesses with specialized products and solutions for a growing seller community. In 2018, the Selling Partner Appstore created a dedicated place where independent sellers could discover thousands of trusted third-party apps–these were products and solutions built by other companies to help sellers run and grow their Amazon businesses. These new APIs opened up a broad range of capabilities including multi-channel catalog management, pricing automation, cross-channel advertising and marketing optimization, advanced analytics and profitability optimization, and a lot more. Today, over one million independent sellers use at least one of the more than 3,000 apps listed in the Selling Partner Appstore. This highlights the thriving partnership between Amazon, third-party developers, and independent sellers to drive new selling capabilities that help businesses of all sizes to succeed with Amazon.
In 2005, Amazon Prime was launched through significant investments in a logistics network that would ensure Amazon could reliably provide customers with the promise of fast, free delivery on a large selection of products. The following year, independent sellers had the option to send their inventory into Amazon’s growing network of fulfillment centers and have Amazon pick, pack, and ship their products as well as provide customer service. These services were brought together under Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to further expand the selection available for fast and free delivery to Amazon Prime customers.
Independent sellers could benefit from Amazon taking on these services at a price generally far below alternatives while gaining more sales as customers preferred fast delivery. FBA not only drove business growth at a great value, but it also allowed independent sellers to offload operational fulfillment, returns, and customer service work to Amazon so sellers could focus more on other areas of scaling their business and creating new products.
In 2009, Amazon launched Amazon Marketplace Web Services Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), creating the data and technology infrastructure for independent sellers to build technology to automate key selling tasks like product listing, order management, and reporting. This data infrastructure quickly evolved to support a new industry of businesses with specialized products and solutions for a growing seller community. In 2018, the Selling Partner Appstore created a dedicated place where independent sellers could discover thousands of trusted
third-party apps–these were products and solutions built by other companies to help sellers run and grow their Amazon businesses. These new APIs opened up a broad range of capabilities including multi-channel catalog management, pricing automation, cross-channel advertising and marketing optimization, advanced analytics and profitability optimization, and a lot more.
guide it through freight services and customs, handle long-term warehousing and storage, multi-channel distribution to all of a seller’s sales channels, and then automated replenishment to fulfillment centers where it can be used to service customer orders—in Amazon’s store or wherever a seller sells their products. The newest SCA service is Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD) which is used to store products in bulk at very low costs. Seller use of AWD has increased nearly 10x from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024.
Brands in Brand Registry receive automated protections that leverage advanced machine learning and expert investigators to prevent the attempted listing of counterfeit or infringing products, scanning keywords, text, and logos that are identical or similar to registered trademarks or copyrighted work. Brand Registry also gives independent sellers access to a suite of powerful brand-building tools that help grow brand awareness, improve consideration, increase conversion rate, and build brand loyalty. Brand owners can also create an
November 2000 marked a dramatic change to Amazon’s store when independent sellers began listing their products alongside Amazon offers. For the first time, customers were exposed to a single product detail page with multiple offers for the same item. For example, they had the option to purchase a book from Amazon directly or from several independent sellers who were also selling the same book. This opportunity unlocked the unique potential and ingenuity of the American small business owner as selection in the store began to rapidly expand through the broad offerings of independent
In addition to enabling sellers to export products to international customers shopping on Amazon.com, in 2002, Amazon launched its first storefront outside of the US—Amazon.co.uk. Today, US-based sellers can sell across 22 different international country websites across continents and around the world. While the opportunities for independent sellers to grow their business beyond US borders can require unique local compliance considerations, including customs, taxes, logistics, and more, Amazon continues to simplify how US small businesses can easily sell globally. This includes by simplifying
Today, brands have more options than ever to sell their products across multiple channels. While selling through their own websites, social media platforms, and other marketplace services helps sellers reach more customers, it also means they have to figure out how to allocate inventory and manage fulfillment for all these different orders. With Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, sellers can simplify their fulfillment and delivery by having Amazon pick, pack, ship, and deliver all of their orders. This allows sellers
to maintain one pool of inventory across all of their
Whether they are just starting out or looking to expand, access to sufficient capital is a critical need for small business owners. In 2011, Amazon began offering lending solutions to provide independent sellers with new opportunities to secure the funds they need to meet their unique business goals. Over the years, Amazon has continuously improved the program with expanded product offerings, faster access to funds, and more flexibility. Through Amazon Lending today, independent sellers can quickly access attractive financing rates with transparent costs, choosing from options like term loans,
Since the successful launch of Fulfillment by Amazon in 2006, Amazon has released a range of advanced fulfillment services to support independent sellers in dealing with the last part of the product journey – from a fulfillment center to the customer. Supply Chain by Amazon aims to revolutionize the entire journey by offering a fast, reliable, end-to-end set of supply chain services that provide independent sellers with a complete, automated solution for moving products from manufacturing locations to customer doorsteps around the world. Amazon will pick up inventory from manufacturing facilities,
sales channels which reduces how much inventory they have to manufacture and the associated capital investment, and it allows sellers to leverage Amazon’s fast and reliable delivery to service customers across their sales channels.
sellers. The concept helped revolutionize retail and created the first of what would become many new customer shopping expectations. Today, the single detail page—where multiple independent sellers can compete to offer the best customer experience—continues to be the heart of what makes Amazon valuable for sellers and customers.
compliance requirements, automatically translating listing data, allowing sellers to automate their pricing across countries, providing more global Fulfillment by Amazon services, launching Customer Service by Amazon so sellers don’t need to speak all those languages, and providing Amazon Currency Conversion Services. Global Selling opens the world to US small businesses with just a few clicks, and simplifies how they sell to customers around the world.
business lines of credit, and merchant cash advances. Amazon collaborates with trusted third-party providers to expand the financing tools available, enabling eligible small businesses to qualify for up to $5 million in capital. Since launching, Amazon Lending has helped provide over $15 billion in capital to help small and medium-sized businesses grow. With resources like Amazon Lending, small business owners gain funds to innovate, scale, and succeed within and beyond their local communities.
Amazon Store as a branded destination for customers and create richer listings with video, enhanced images, and product comparison charts, and they get access to insights and analytics that help independent sellers make strategic, informed decisions on how to grow their brands.
Since 2000, independent sellers have leveraged Amazon to start, build, and grow their businesses.
Read more
Read more
Click on a year to explore key milestones.
Jon Kornbluh,
Founder & CEO
Bluecorn Beeswax
Curtis McGill, Co-founder
Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Scott Houdashell, Co-founder Hey Buddy Hey Pal
11 "Amazon and Walmart Race to Speed Up Delivery Times to Extend Their Ecommerce Lead." eMarketer, accessed April 1, 2025.
Curtis McGill, Co-founder
Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Scott Houdashell, Co-founder Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Jess Nepstad, CEO, Planetary Design
Jon Kornbluh, Founder & CEO, Bluecorn Beeswax
Paula Blankenship, Founder & CEO, Heirloom Traditions Paint
3/3
1/3
1/4
1/3
2/4
3/4
2/3
2/3
4/4
2/3
3/3
1/3
3/3
Intro
2000
2002
2006
2009
2011
2015
2017
2023
Intro
2000
2002
2006
2009
2011
2015
2017
2023
A transformative partnership
“Once Amazon opened to independent sellers, it was a great opportunity. We were consistent and vocal about what sellers needed, and Amazon was really listening. They kept building and improving based on our feedback. We were building something together."
David Stickland (left)
President and Co-founder, Popsmith
Seattle, WA
Pictured with Tal Moore (right), CEO & Co-founder, Popsmith.
Twenty-five years ago, independent sellers joined Amazon's store, establishing a partnership that would ultimately reshape retail. What started as a novel concept has since evolved into an engine for small business growth. Today, more than 60% of Amazon's sales come from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. This success stems from a mutually beneficial dynamic—independent sellers bring their unique selection and entrepreneurial spirit to the store while Amazon provides the tools, technology, and customers that help them grow. By leveraging Amazon’s logistics, warehousing, and delivery capabilities, independent sellers can reduce the time they spend on day-to-day operations so they can focus more time on creating new products and building customer loyalty. As consumer expectations evolve—and their demand increases for greater choice, convenience, and speed—Amazon and small businesses work together to meet these changing needs. This transformative partnership creates new opportunities for businesses of all sizes to succeed and will continue to unlock even more potential in the years ahead.
"Selling with Amazon, for me and my small business, has really opened up a lot of opportunities. It's reaching an audience that I would never be able to reach where I live. I live in a rural area. And by using Amazon's tools and shipping capabilities, we're able to reach customers all over the US."
Margaret Rice
Owner, Your Therapy Source
Schaghticoke, NY
Independent sellers in the US averaged more than $290,000 in annual sales in Amazon's store in 2024.
More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store are from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses.
Over the last 25 years, independent sellers have generated more than $2.5 trillion in sales in Amazon’s store.
Small businesses rate Amazon as the sales channel that provides the best value for their business, and they pick Amazon as the best value more than twice as often as any other sales channel. 1
According to a new Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council survey:
86% of Amazon sellers say that Amazon supports small sellers.
88% of Amazon sellers say profit margins are the same or higher on Amazon than on other channels.
92% of Amazon sellers say Amazon pricing is fair. 2
Independent sellers join the Amazon store
November 2000 marked a dramatic change to Amazon’s store when independent sellers began listing their products alongside Amazon offers. For the first time, customers were exposed to a single product detail page with multiple offers for the same item. For example, they had the option to purchase a book from Amazon directly or from several independent sellers who were also selling the same book. This opportunity unlocked the unique potential and ingenuity of the American small business owner as selection in the store began to rapidly expand through the broad offerings of independent sellers. The concept helped revolutionize retail and created the first of what would become many new customer shopping expectations. Today, the single detail page—where multiple independent sellers can compete to offer the best customer experience—continues to be the heart of what makes Amazon valuable for sellers and customers.
Jon Kornbluh, Founder & CEO, Bluecorn Beeswax
Montrose, CO
Meet the seller: Bluecorn Beeswax
The power of partnership: two decades of building national success and local impact.
Montrose, CO
“Our return on Amazon advertising is quite high and it’s been really important in our growth” said Tessa Cheek, chief revenue officer for Bluecorn Beeswax. “About 30% of our advertising budget goes to Amazon because it's more effective than other marketing channels.” By combining Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products with strategic search optimization, Bluecorn turned a 10% decline that year into 30% year-over-year growth.
The results validated their partnership. “We started paying attention to every detail of our product listings – from product photos to descriptions,” Cheek explained. “What we realized was Amazon had already built the infrastructure we needed to succeed.”
“What impressed us most was Amazon's pace of innovation,” Kornbluh added. “We watched them continuously test and launch new features, often at a speed that seemed mind-boggling for a company of their scale. Over time, we learned to trust their insights. When they introduced new tools or features, we knew they were responding to real customer needs—needs we might not even have recognized yet as a small business. Amazon’s ability to innovate and execute made them an invaluable partner for businesses like ours.”
Within 18 months of adopting FBA, their workforce doubled from 9 to 18 employees. Revenue grew steadily through the 2010s as Bluecorn adopted each new Amazon innovation. “We went from a 4,300-square-foot facility that could barely contain our inventory to needing a space three times that size,” Kornbluh said. “Each year brought new tools from Amazon–advanced advertising capabilities, enhanced analytics, improved fulfillment options – and each one helped us compete more effectively from our rural location.”
By 2019, Bluecorn had become a significant employer in their community, but it was during the pandemic that the true value of their Amazon partnership became clear.
“When our manufacturing shut down in spring 2020 due to COVID-19, we couldn't make candles for six weeks,” Kornbluh recalled. “But we had three months’ worth of inventory already stocked at Amazon. Rather than having our sales in the gutter, they doubled and tripled. By the time that inventory started waning, we were back manufacturing and restocking.”
When 2021 brought a surge of new independent sellers and competition in the candle category reached its peak, Bluecorn discovered Amazon's advertising tools would be key to unlocking their next phase of growth.
“I wanted to be with my family enjoying the mountains of Southern Colorado and focusing on quality of life,” he explained. “So, I pulled back from B2B and instead focused on direct-to-consumer. And then, we had this idea to try Amazon.”
For Kornbluh, Amazon represented something revolutionary, he watched as it evolved from its earliest days. “When Amazon first opened their store to small businesses like ours, it was pretty rudimentary," he recalled. "Just a simple page where you could list your products. But I decided to take a chance, and as Amazon grew, so did we. The concept that we could reach customers nationwide from our rural location was a game changer."
Between 2006 and 2010, as Amazon's search capabilities grew more sophisticated, Bluecorn Beeswax found themselves perfectly positioned. “We were producing what was essentially a generic product–beeswax candles,” Kornbluh explained. “When customers typed 'beeswax candles' into Amazon's search bar, they found us. We were one of the first, and our commitment to quality kept us at the top. The reviews and repeat purchases just reinforced our position.”
Today, on any given morning in Montrose, Colorado, locals gather at a sunlit café to sip coffee and watch artisans dip beeswax candles through a glass wall. This bustling community hub—a $4.2 million business employing 40 people in a town of 30,000—represents the transformative power of a decision made 25 years ago, when Amazon first invited independent sellers into its store.
When Jon Kornbluh started making beeswax candles in his 10-by-10-foot cabin in Colorado, he wasn't thinking about building a community cornerstone. He was just trying to solve a problem.
“I was living in this woodsy cabin and getting headaches from kerosene lanterns,” said Kornbluh. “I started making beeswax candles and instantly sold them to my community of friends and the health food store. I loved the craft. I loved the commerce.”
Through the 1990s, fueled by Kornbluh's passion and commitment, Bluecorn Beeswax evolved from a local craft to a growing business. But traveling to trade shows in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta wasn't the future Kornbluh envisioned.
In those early days, Kornbluh realized he had tapped into something powerful: a way for small businesses to compete nationally based on the quality of their product. As their success grew, he looked for ways to scale their fulfillment operations to match their increasing sales.
Then, with one phone call, everything changed.
“Amazon called and asked if we knew about Fulfillment by Amazon,” Kornbluh remembered. “This guy converted one of our products to FBA in real time. We printed packing labels, shipped that product to a warehouse, all within 30 minutes—and overnight it changed our direct-to-consumer sales world.”
The impact was immediate and dramatic. “We saw our sales spike 4x in a month,” Kornbluh said. “And that was just one test product. We started converting products as fast as we possibly could to FBA. 4x, 6x, 10x. All of a sudden, we had this Amazon momentum working for us.”
The growth transformed their business.
As their Amazon business has grown over the years, so has Bluecorn Beeswax’s wholesale business and their own direct-to-consumer channels. They employ more than 40 people—from skilled craftspeople to production and operations managers to marketing specialists, all based in Montrose, Colorado.
Their growth has funded an expansion into a 26,000-square-foot facility in downtown Montrose, featuring a café and mercantile where visitors can watch candle artisans at work. “The most gratifying work I'm doing these days is creating this community space,” Kornbluh said.
“This journey has been remarkable,” Kornbluh reflected. “From our early days with Amazon to where we are now, each step has built on the last. The candle business allowed this café space to take root and thrive, and Amazon remains a core pillar of that success. Today, we're building something even bigger–a lasting contribution to our community.”
When Amazon opened its store to independent sellers 25 years ago, it created new possibilities for businesses across the country. One of many amazing examples that symbolizes this opportunity is Bluecorn Beeswax who grew from a mountain-town startup into a significant employer that's building both national success and local prosperity.
Today, on any given morning in Montrose, Colorado, locals gather at a sunlit café to sip coffee and watch artisans dip beeswax candles
Bluecorn Beeswax
When Amazon opened its store to independent sellers 25 years ago, it created new possibilities for businesses across the country. One of many amazing examples that symbolizes this opportunity is Bluecorn Beeswax who grew from a mountain-town startup into a significant employer that's building both national success and local prosperity.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Jon Kornbluh, Founder & CEO, Bluecorn Beeswax
Learn more about Bluecorn Beeswax’s journey with Amazon
6/7
2/7
3/7
1/7
5/7
4/7
7/7
Play video
Fulfillment by Amazon
In 2005, Amazon Prime was launched through significant investments in a logistics network that would ensure Amazon could reliably provide customers with the promise of fast, free delivery on a large selection of products. The following year, independent sellers had the option to send their inventory into Amazon’s growing network of fulfillment centers and have Amazon pick, pack, and ship their products as well as provide customer service. These services were brought together under Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), further expanding the selection available for fast and free delivery to Amazon Prime customers. Independent sellers could benefit from Amazon taking on these services at a price generally far below alternatives while gaining more sales as customers preferred fast delivery. FBA not only drove business growth at a great value, but it also allowed independent sellers to offload operational fulfillment, returns, and customer service work to Amazon so sellers could focus more on other areas of scaling their business and creating new products. Over time, Amazon has continued to innovate and make FBA faster, more reliable, and with more supply chain features to better serve independent sellers. As a result, Amazon Prime now offers free delivery on more than 300 million items across 35 categories, tens of millions of which can be delivered the same or next day—which means Prime now offers 20 times more selection that can be delivered twice as fast compared to when Prime first launched in the US in 2005. A huge part of this growth has been driven by the powerful partnership between Amazon and independent sellers through FBA.
Paula Blankenship, Founder & CEO, Heirloom Traditions Paint
Taylorsville, KY
Meet the seller: Heirloom Traditions Paint
Fulfillment by Amazon solves rural manufacturer's dirt road dilemma.
Taylorsville, KY
The success through FBA led to even bigger opportunities for job creation. In 2023, Blankenship purchased the 75-year-old paint manufacturer that had been making some of their products, preserving those manufacturing jobs while securing their supply chain and adding a successful line of swimming pool paints. “We put all those products in the Amazon store, and it did millions in sales in a short selling season last year,” said Blankenship.
Today, Heirloom Traditions generates $30 million in annual revenue between the businesses. Its success has enabled a $7 million investment in new manufacturing facilities and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse with an attached retail space in Taylorsville, with 53 jobs—jobs that would have disappeared without FBA's solution to their logistics challenges. In 2021, demonstrating their commitment to the workforce that helped build the company, Blankenship converted the business to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving their workers ownership of 49% of the company.
“Our employees’ futures are tied to our success here in Taylorsville. The impact is generational. It's not just about the product that we deliver to our customers, but it's also about the people who make it happen—we're all connected,” said Blankenship.
The turning point came with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a partnership that not only kept Heirloom Traditions' doors open but catapulted the Kentucky business onto the national stage. FBA provided the sophisticated logistics infrastructure Blankenship's paint company needed, handling the complex challenges of storing, picking, packing, and shipping liquid products. All she needed to do was get her product into Amazon’s network, and FBA would handle the rest.
For a small manufacturer beginning to scale, this access to Amazon's nationwide fulfillment network meant she could keep her employees working while reaching customers across the country.
“Amazon levels the playing field. If you're in a small community like we are, you can scale nationwide through FBA,” Blankenship explained. “When customers see Prime, they know the product is usually going to get there in one to two days. People today value their time as money. Fast shipping matters.”
The impact was immediate and substantial. Sales grew to $4 million in their first year with FBA, then reached $10 million the following year. Instead of laying off workers, they were hiring. This rapid growth enabled Blankenship to expand her product line from a handful of items to hundreds available through Amazon, while maintaining consistent nationwide availability—a feat that would have been difficult and costly to manage without FBA.
Looking ahead, Blankenship is building out her own website to include Amazon’s “Buy with Prime” experience. Buy with Prime enables Heirloom Traditions to offer the same fast, reliable shipping on their own website that Prime customers expect from Amazon, with the same payment solutions they already use. “When customers see that Buy with Prime button on our website, it gives us immediate credibility,” Blankenship said. “They know they can trust our small business because Amazon is handling the delivery. It's going to help us scale even more.”
This next phase of growth builds on a partnership that has already redefined what's possible for small businesses and rural manufacturing.
“I couldn't grow my business without a partner like Amazon,” Blankenship said. “They solved the logistics challenges that were holding us back and made it possible for a rural Kentucky small business to compete nationally.”
The line of job applicants stretched around the building the day Heirloom Traditions Paint started hiring in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Paula Blankenship’s coveted line of ALL-IN-ONE paints transformed her into Spencer County's largest private employer. But it almost didn’t happen. In 2016, the company faced a crisis: pivot to direct-to-consumer sales or close its doors.
Thirty miles from the nearest interstate, shipping heavy, liquid products to customers individually and nationwide was nearly impossible for Blankenship. Costly, clunky, and time-consuming, fulfillment was a chokepoint to her business growth. The stakes were high—these jobs had finally given local residents an alternative to hour-long commutes to Louisville. Now their future hung in the balance.
Heirloom Traditions Paint
The line of job applicants stretched around the building the day Heirloom Traditions Paint started hiring in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Paula Blankenship’s coveted line of ALL-IN-ONE paints transformed her into Spencer County's largest private employer. But it almost didn’t happen. In 2016, the company faced a crisis: pivot to direct-to-consumer sales or close its doors.
Thirty miles from the nearest interstate, shipping heavy, liquid products to customers individually and nationwide was nearly impossible for Blankenship. Costly, clunky, and time-consuming, fulfillment was a chokepoint to her business growth. The stakes were high—these jobs had finally given local residents an alternative to hour-long commutes to Louisville. Now their future hung in the balance.
“We are not in a handy location,” said Blankenship. “This town is not connected to infrastructure, it's just a two-lane road. Before we could even begin scaling, we had to convince national carriers to service our location. Getting pickup services was a constant challenge.”
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Learn more about Heirloom Traditions Paint's journey with Amazon
3/4
2/4
1/4
4/4
Play video
Moving a product from 2-day to sub-same-day delivery lifts sales conversion rates by an average of 20%.
Independent sellers in the US support local jobs—more than 65% employ at least one person within 50 miles of their primary business location.
Shipping with Fulfillment by Amazon costs 70% less per unit than comparable premium options offered by other major US carriers.
In 2024, over 9 billion items sold in Amazon’s store have arrived on the same or next day globally.
Since 2006, sellers have shipped over 80 billion units with Fulfillment by Amazon.
"Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is such a time saver. It essentially allows you to work on the business instead of in the business. You are sending your products to an Amazon warehouse, and then they will pick, pack, and ship when someone buys your product. So, FBA has been amazing for us. We're essentially just shipping our products over, and then just watching our customers be happy. It's really that simple."
Felipe Vasconcelos
Owner & CEO, Kapuluan Coconut
Bronx, NY
“Utilizing Fulfillment by Amazon has been great for our business. It allows us to get product to our customers so much faster. They're helping us with inventory, placement, and expansion, and it frees up our time so that we can focus on growing the business and really building our community even stronger.”
Jessica Berger
Founder, Bundle x Joy
Phoenix, AZ
Customer Service by Amazon
Customer Service by Amazon takes care of customer service for orders that independent sellers fulfill on their own. Customer contacts are directed to Amazon Customer Service, providing 24/7 support over phone, chat, and email in the customer’s preferred language. This is a huge win for small businesses that may not have employees working on weekends or holidays, might not be trained in providing great support, or simply want to have Amazon take care of this so they can spend more time inventing amazing products. While Amazon already provides customer service for products that use FBA, Customer Service by Amazon is now used by more than 365,000 independent sellers who are getting access to a high-quality customer service experience for products that they are fulfilling on their own.
Selling Partner Appstore
In 2009, Amazon launched Amazon Marketplace Web Services Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), creating the data and technology infrastructure for independent sellers to build technology to automate key selling tasks like product listing, order management, and reporting. This data infrastructure quickly evolved to support a new industry of businesses with specialized products and solutions for a growing seller community. In 2018, the Selling Partner Appstore created a dedicated place where independent sellers could discover thousands of trusted third-party apps—these were products and solutions built by other companies to help sellers run and grow their Amazon businesses. These new APIs opened up a broad range of capabilities including multi-channel catalog management, pricing automation, cross-channel advertising and marketing optimization, advanced analytics and profitability optimization, and a lot more. Today, over one million independent sellers use at least one of the more than 3,000 apps listed in the Selling Partner Appstore. This highlights the thriving partnership between Amazon, third-party developers, and independent sellers to drive new selling capabilities that help businesses of all sizes to succeed with Amazon.
Support Small storefront
Support Small is a curated storefront that provides customers shopping in the Amazon store with an opportunity to discover unique products from small businesses and meet the independent sellers behind them. With small business spotlights, curated collections, and ways to discover brands from communities they support—including Black-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned small businesses—customers and independent sellers alike can visit Support Small year-round to hear seller stories, find new products, and get inspiration.
Amazon Accelerate
Designed to provide unparalleled education, networking, and direct access to Amazon expertise, Amazon Accelerate is the premier annual conference for independent sellers and anyone interested in selling in the Amazon store. At Amazon Accelerate 2024, thousands of independent sellers connected with other sellers and Amazonians, and they heard the latest program announcements, engaged in over 60 breakout sessions, and received personalized support from Amazon subject-matter experts.
"Amazon Accelerate has been transformative for our growth. I used to send my team members, but after attending myself, I really understood the value of it. It's not just about learning new tools and strategies—the connections with other sellers make the real difference. The knowledge-sharing and community have been invaluable for keeping our 30-year-old company innovative."
Gregory Perkins
CEO, African American Expressions
Sacramento, CA
During the 2024 Prime Day event, participating independent sellers saw sales increase by 32%.
"Prime Day has become such a major retail event, so we want to make sure we have the right strategies in place to capture that demand. The data and analytics tools Amazon provides have been invaluable in helping us understand our customer behavior and make informed decisions about our Prime Day programming."
Jonathan Kunke
Co-founder, Honeydew Sleep
Newbury Park, CA
Prime Day
Prime Day 2024 was Amazon’s biggest Prime Day shopping event ever, with record sales and more items sold during the two-day event than any previous Prime Day. Members in the US were able to shop more deals on small business products than ever before. Independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses—sold more than 200 million items during the Prime Day event. Prime Day is made possible because of Amazon’s significant investments in marketing, merchandising, operational infrastructure, and people that result in huge traffic generation that drives seller success. All of this results in an end-to-end experience and huge discounts that customers love and big boosts in sales that small businesses love.
Small Business badge
With the Small Business badge, customers can easily discover a unique selection of incredible products from small business brands and artisans. The badge helps customers shop with confidence and know they’re making a real impact on supporting small businesses and their local communities.
A level playing field for small business owners
“You don’t have to be ‘somebody’ to achieve the American Dream. You can be anybody. Everybody has a fair chance through hard work and education. Both paid off for us. When the opportunity arose, we took it and, with Amazon’s help, we made our business grow.”
Joanna Serra (left)
Founder & COO, Birdy Boutique
Detroit, MI
Pictured with Barbara Kent (right), CEO & Founder, Birdy Boutique.
Amazon’s ongoing investments on behalf of independent sellers have made it possible for small businesses across America to start, scale, and succeed as retail continues to evolve based on customer needs. Small businesses now have access to comprehensive tools and services—including advanced fulfillment networks, supply chain solutions, emerging AI technologies, rich educational resources, and advanced business optimization solutions—capabilities that were previously available only to large retailers. When small businesses choose to sell in Amazon’s store, they have access to a global customer base where they can create and showcase their brand’s unique story, drive product discovery to help them attract customers, and develop long-term customer loyalty. Helping independent sellers succeed on a level playing field with the largest retailers puts power into the hands of small businesses and represents opportunity that was unprecedented 25 years ago.
Jin & Kevin Chon, Co-founders, Coop Sleep Goods
Los Angeles, CA
Meet the sellers: Coop Sleep Goods
Siblings use Amazon to break into a sleeping industry.
Los Angeles, CA
But unlike previous generations of small business owners, the Chons had an alternative. Instead of needing industry connections or massive marketing budgets to reach customers, they turned to Amazon's store. Starting with just one pillow, they let customers decide if their idea had merit.
The response was immediate. Customer reviews highlighted a fundamental problem with existing products—one-size-fits-all designs weren't working. Through Amazon’s Brand Analytics, the Chons could see exactly what customers were searching for and what problems they needed solved. This direct feedback led to their breakthrough innovation: an adjustable pillow that customers could customize to their needs.
“We take those analytics and really apply them to the business,” Kevin explained. “Understanding what products to expand into, and how to allocate our energy and focus to grow the business in the right way.”
Fulfillment by Amazon proved transformative for Coop Sleep Goods’ growth. The service handled all logistics–from warehousing and shipping to returns and customer service–allowing the Chons to focus on product development and innovation.
In those early years, with just four employees, they achieved 200-300% year-over-year growth in the Amazon store, quickly rising to the top of the pillow category. Now, with a team of over 50 employees, the siblings are expanding into other sales channels, targeting big box stores across the country with their pillows and their new premium bedding brand Comphy, which they acquired last year.
“The margins on Amazon can be better than other channels,” said Jin. “When you consider the cost of driving traffic these days, plus Amazon's existing customer base and logistics benefits, dollar for dollar it’s the better investment.”
The Chons believe their story represents more than just individual success—it demonstrates how retail dynamics have fundamentally shifted because of Amazon, proving that sometimes the best way to break into an established industry isn't to fight the gatekeepers—it's to find a different gate.
"Amazon has been an invaluable partner in our journey," Jin said. "Their tools and support helped transform our ideas into a thriving business. As we expand into new retailers this year, we know our future growth will continue to be built on the foundation Amazon helped us create."
“There's no way we would be getting shelf space in stores across the country like we are today without Amazon,” said Jin Chon, who founded Coop Sleep Goods in 2013 with her brother, Kevin. “The first thing they say is, 'Wow, people love you guys on Amazon.' They see the reviews, they see the love for our products, and suddenly, doors that were once closed start opening.”
Coop Sleep Goods
“There's no way we would be getting shelf space in stores across the country like we are today without Amazon,” said Jin Chon, who founded Coop Sleep Goods in 2013 with her brother, Kevin. “The first thing they say is, 'Wow, people love you guys on Amazon.' They see the reviews, they see the love for our products, and suddenly, doors that were once closed start opening.”
For decades, getting sleep products onto retail shelves meant navigating an exclusive network of industry connections and winning over traditional gatekeepers. The Chons discovered this firsthand at their first trade show, where established large manufacturers refused to even discuss their ideas for improving sleep products.
“Nobody wanted to talk to us,” said Kevin. “The industry had been doing things the same way for 50 years, and they weren't interested in change.”
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Learn more about Coop Sleep Goods’ journey with Amazon
2/3
1/3
3/3
Play video
More than 55,000 independent sellers generated more than $1 million in sales in 2024.
Compared to other sales channels, Amazon’s low fees leave more money for independent sellers to cover costs and make a profit. For example, Amazon referral fees leave independent sellers with about 85% of the sale price, while wholesalers leave sellers with just 38-75%.3 And for those who want to sell in traditional brick-and-mortar stores, just getting a product onto the shelves of a grocery or big-box store can run as high as $1,000 per store.4 Sellers can start a professional selling account with Amazon for as low as $39.99/month, plus selling fees.
New Seller Guide
The New Seller Guide is a set of brand, logistics, pricing, and promotional services and incentives that have been optimized over many years using data science and analytics. These recommended actions are designed to help new sellers succeed by speeding up their time to launch, getting products discovered, and ensuring strong conversion and sales. They provide a powerful recipe designed to drive new seller growth.
Seller University
Amazon Seller University offers educational resources to help independent sellers learn how to succeed in Amazon’s store. Content includes thousands of hours of articles, videos, webinars, and case studies in 24 languages. Amazon uses advanced analytics to understand the critical success factors for driving seller success and the areas that benefit sellers the most, and then builds Seller University content to help guide sellers through these success enablers. This includes training and practical instructions on things like how to analyze product performance and reduce customer returns, how to make smart pricing decisions and earn customer trust, and how to find the right customers and grow sales with efficient advertising.
In 2024, more than 1.5 million independent sellers used free Seller University training to help them grow and optimize their business. Seller University is available in articles, videos, webinars, and case study learning formats, across 35 topic areas and 24 languages.
"As we continued to learn more and take a lot of the educational courses and webinars through Amazon, we started to understand how to build the business better, and that's when we started to change our prices to become more competitive."
Nancey Harris
Co-founder & COO, Vontelle Eyewear
Brooklyn, NY
Handmade
Amazon Handmade highlights the creativity and ambition of independent makers who create the entirety or majority of their products on their own. These makers can use the Handmade store and Handmade tag to reach more customers and access unique features that help raise awareness about the quality and creation of their goods.
Helpful advice and support
Tens of thousands of Amazonians—including support associates, account managers, software developers, machine learning scientists, product managers, and more—are dedicated to helping independent sellers succeed. They invent to create new opportunities, carefully understand and eliminate defects that impact the seller experience and help sellers in optimizing and growing their businesses. Every day, global teams work to provide independent sellers with the strategies, answers, guidance, programs, and solutions they need to succeed in Amazon’s store, and if sellers ever have an issue, seller support teams are available 24/7 to help them over phone, chat, or email.
79% of small business retailers agree that selling online has created opportunities to get their products into physical stores.5
"National Small Retailer Attitudes Survey," TechNet and Ipsos, accessed April 1, 2025.
“They’re going to buy it where they want to buy it and what’s convenient to them. And, for millions of Americans, Amazon is convenient to them. It’s allowed us to be accessible even if we don’t have a nationwide footprint. We’re there and available to any customer in America.”
Jarred Smith
Co-founder, NOOMA
Cleveland, OH
This is Small Business
This is Small Business gives listeners a front-row seat to the real and inspiring journeys of small business owners. Each week, this award-winning Amazon podcast spotlights a different small business, diving into the make-or-break moments that shaped their path. From big wins to tough lessons, This Is Small Business uncovers what it really takes to build something from the ground up and thrive in today’s ever-changing business world. In 2024, the podcast crossed the 100-episode mark, featuring 82 independent sellers.
Listen to This Is Small Business on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Alice Kim, Founder, Elizabeth Mott, Honolulu, HI
Top This is Small Business episode of 2024
“Making it work: how to build a business with a small budget”
Featured guests: Alice Kim, founder of Elizabeth Mott, and Caroline Castrillon, founder of the Corporate Escape Artist
Starting a business on a tight budget might sound tough, but it can be more beneficial than you might think. Just ask Alice Kim, founder of Elizabeth Mott, who turned a small budget into a flourishing business. Alice explains how she reduced costs by building a strong network, coming up with creative solutions, and the importance of buying enough time to build the momentum you need to get your business noticed. You’ll also hear from Caroline Castrillon, founder of the Corporate Escape Artist, who shares budget-friendly ways to understand your target audience and do research.
Global Selling
In addition to enabling sellers to export products to international customers shopping on Amazon.com, in 2002, Amazon invited independent sellers into the first storefront outside of the US–Amazon.co.uk. Today, US-based sellers can sell across 22 different international country websites across continents and around the world. While the opportunities for independent sellers to grow their business beyond US borders can require unique local compliance considerations, including customs, taxes, logistics, and more, Amazon continues to simplify how US small businesses can easily sell globally. This includes simplifying compliance requirements, automatically translating listing data, allowing sellers to automate their pricing across countries, providing more global Fulfillment by Amazon services, launching Customer Service by Amazon so sellers don’t need to speak all those languages, and providing Amazon Currency Conversion Services. Global Selling opens the world to US small businesses with just a few clicks, and simplifies how they sell to customers around the world.
85% of small businesses agree that selling online allows their businesses to reduce overall expenses they would otherwise incur (e.g., order fulfillment, payment processing, ads).6
"National Small Retailer Attitudes Survey," TechNet and Ipsos, accessed April 1, 2025.
Over the last 25 years, US-based independent sellers have exported more than 2 billion items globally across Amazon’s stores.
Jess Nepstad, CEO, Planetary Design
Bonner, MT
Meet the seller: Planetary Designs
Scaling with Amazon, a small Montana business reaches the world.
Bonner, MT
“Back in 2016, we were doing about $2 million in annual sales,” Nepstad said. “Today, we're at $10 million, with customers in multiple countries. That kind of growth wouldn't have been possible without Amazon's global selling program.”
While growing its Bonner-based operations, Planetary Design has leveraged the digital tools Amazon provides to independent sellers to reach customers worldwide. “We can launch in a new country and start seeing results almost immediately,” Nepstad noted.
"Our product reviews carry over, our advertising strategies transfer seamlessly, and Amazon's tools help us navigate everything from translations to regulations in each new country."
That consistency has proven crucial for the company's expansion. In Germany, where coffee culture runs deep, Planetary Design saw 45% growth last year. Similar success followed in other European countries, Asia and Canada, with sales in four out of five overseas stores growing faster than their US business in 2024.
Those global customers have also enabled faster product innovation. When Planetary Design develops new coffee-related products, they can test reception across different countries simultaneously. “We can see real-time customer feedback from around the world,” Nepstad explained. “That kind of insight used to be available only to massive corporations.”
For Nepstad, who spent 18 years at Nestlé before leading Planetary Design, the accessibility of international commerce represents a fundamental shift in opportunities for small businesses. “Twenty years ago, if you wanted to sell internationally, you needed offices in every country, relationships with local retailers, and massive marketing budgets,” he said. “Today, a company from anywhere in America can reach customers worldwide with Amazon.”
The success has allowed Planetary Design to maintain its commitment to quality while growing its workforce in Montana.
Looking ahead, Nepstad sees opportunity where coffee consumption is growing rapidly. “We're watching countries that traditionally favor tea, like India, where coffee culture is exploding,” he said. “The ability to enter new countries efficiently, test customer response, and scale accordingly – that's revolutionary for a small business from Montana.”
As morning light streamed through the office windows, illuminating the snow-capped mountains beyond, Nepstad reflected on the journey. “We're still the same small company at heart,” he said. “We've just figured out how to share our innovation with the world.”
At their new headquarters in Bonner, Montana, ten minutes outside of Missoula, Jess Nepstad demonstrated his company's signature product: an indestructible coffee storage container with a patented airless plunger system. “Most people squeeze air out of freezer bags to keep food fresh,” he said, pressing down on the Airscape’s inner lid with a satisfying whoosh. “We just made it sophisticated.”
Planetary Designs
At their new headquarters in Bonner, Montana, ten minutes outside of Missoula, Jess Nepstad demonstrated his company's signature product: an indestructible coffee storage container with a patented airless plunger system. “Most people squeeze air out of freezer bags to keep food fresh,” he said, pressing down on the Airscape’s inner lid with a satisfying whoosh. “We just made it sophisticated.”
This simple innovation from Planetary Design, a 22-person company nestled in the mountains of Western Montana, found its way into kitchens across the globe—from coffee shops in Berlin to home baristas in Tokyo. Their journey from local business to international brand illustrates what Nepstad, after two decades in the coffee industry, describes as a fundamental shift in how small businesses can go global with Amazon.
Amazon Lending
Whether they are just starting out or looking to expand, access to sufficient capital is a critical need for small business owners. In 2011, Amazon began offering lending solutions to provide independent sellers with new opportunities to secure the funds they need to meet their unique business goals. Over the years, Amazon has continuously improved the program with expanded product offerings, faster access to funds, and more flexibility. Through Amazon Lending today, independent sellers can quickly access attractive financing rates with transparent costs, choosing from options like term loans, business lines of credit, and merchant cash advances. Amazon collaborates with trusted third-party providers to expand the financing tools available, enabling eligible small businesses to qualify for up to $5 million in capital. Since launching, Amazon Lending has helped provide over $15 billion in capital to help small and medium-sized businesses grow. With resources like Amazon Lending, small business owners gain funds to innovate, scale, and succeed within and beyond their local communities.
2/4
3/4
1/4
4/4
“Getting the investment was really fast, maybe less than 24 hours. I was able to get the inventory that I needed and actually hired my first full-time employee.”
Sylvia Kapsandoy
Founder of USimplySeason
Salt Lake City, UT
Since launching in 2011, Amazon Lending has helped small and medium-sized businesses get access to over $15 billion in capital to help their businesses grow.
Amazon Business
Amazon Business helps independent sellers get discovered by business-to-business (B2B) customers of all sizes. Millions of business customers worldwide—from small businesses, schools, hospitals, nonprofits, and government agencies to large enterprises with global operations—improve their procurement with cost and time savings, greater productivity, and insightful purchasing analytics. Independent sellers can use specific Amazon Business tools to discover B2B needs, respond to custom quote requests, connect to potential government customers, and sell items in bulk. Business customers often buy in larger quantities—which means small businesses selling to Amazon Business customers can sell more with less time and effort.
Amazon Ads
Advertising for a small business can be tough and cost-prohibitive, so Amazon created advertising options to help independent sellers to more easily and cost-effectively drive sales. For independent sellers, this means more efficient advertising solutions that can promote their products, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions. Since 2012, Amazon has continued to expand our cost-per-click, display, and video ad offerings, allowing independent sellers to engage in brand and performance advertising across the customer experience. On a cost-per-click basis, independent sellers can advertise individual or group products. They can choose from one of almost a dozen different formats and experiences to engage with customers, have complete control over the frequency of ads, and select how much they choose to spend on a campaign.
Amazon Ads helps advertisers reach an average monthly ad-supported audience of more than 300 million people in the US across Amazon's owned and operated properties (e.g., Prime Video, Fire TV, Whole Food, Amazon Music, Twitch, and more), and third-party publishers.
“Amazon Ads has been transformative for our business. It's enabled us to reach so many new customers and grow our sales at a pace we never could have imagined when we first started out."
Luciana Yarhi (left)
Co-founder, Binibi
Miami, FL
Pictured with Ana Sofia Guzmán (right),
Co-founder & CEO, Binibi.
Sponsored Products & Brands
Sponsored Products are cost-per-click ads that promote individual product listings. In just a few minutes, independent sellers can create a custom campaign that helps them promote their products, increase sales, and improve brand visibility in the Amazon store and select premium apps and websites. Sponsored Brands is a supplemental advertising solution that can leverage audience attention in prominent placements in the Amazon store. Customers are 95 percent more likely to remember a brand message conveyed through video compared to written content7, offering independent sellers another way to stand out.
Subscribe & Save
Subscribe & Save allows independent sellers to provide customers discounted pricing and coupons if they sign up for regularly scheduled deliveries. Customers can select a recurring delivery on a cadence from two weeks to six months. On average, subscribers spend 3.4x more than one-time customers and subscription revenue grows 2x faster than one-time sales for that brand. Independent sellers can also choose to add Subscribe & Save coupons to their products at up to 50% off enabling them to attract even more long-term customers.
“For every dollar we spend with Amazon Ads, depending on the product, we get anywhere between 3-5 times of our money spent. When you really go into it and work on your bids and your keyword negation, you can find your specific customers and what they’re looking for—we’ve had tremendous results because of that.”
Caleb Kimbro
Digital Operations & Branding, Preservation Solutions
Denver, CO
Promotions
Promotions, deals, coupons, and discounts are helpful tools that can offer savings to customers and help drive sales for sellers. These tools can help sellers stand out from the competition, stimulate sales and product trial, sell through overstock, and boost visibility through additional merchandising throughout the Amazon shopping experience. They provide an easy, low-cost way for sellers to drive their business while helping provide great value for customers.
Amazon Vine
Product reviews help customers make more informed purchase decisions, especially on newly launched products or for brands that are new and not well-known. Amazon Vine is a program which allows sellers to access a community of trusted Amazon shoppers—called Vine Voices—who share their honest product experiences with other customers to help them make more informed purchase decisions. Getting Vine reviews has been shown to boost sales for sellers by up to 30%. Hundreds of new products from all types of categories are added daily to the program. For transparency, reviews submitted by Vine Voices are marked as such in the Amazon store.
IP Accelerator
Amazon’s IP Accelerator helps small businesses efficiently obtain intellectual property rights, offering a trusted and cost-effective way for business owners to protect their brands. The IP Accelerator program connects brands with a network of vetted legal service providers that offer trademark support and other intellectual-property services at competitive, discounted rates. This allows small businesses to establish their IP and enroll in Amazon Brand Registry faster, jump-starting access to Amazon’s brand protection services and brand-building benefits.
Brand Registry
Amazon’s Brand Registry is a free program for brand owners that provides powerful tools for protecting and building their brand’s success. Brands in Brand Registry receive automated protections that leverage advanced machine learning and expert investigators to prevent the attempted listing of counterfeit or infringing products, scanning keywords, text, and logos that are identical or similar to registered trademarks or copyrighted work. Brand Registry also gives independent sellers access to a suite of powerful brand-building tools that help grow brand awareness, improve consideration, increase conversion rate, and build brand loyalty. Brand owners can also create an Amazon store as a branded destination for customers and create richer listings with video, enhanced images, and product comparison charts, and they get access to insights and analytics that help independent sellers make strategic, informed decisions on how to grow their brands.
“We aspire to make innovative products. We’re always prototyping. We’re always building things, and we do invest a lot in IP Amazon Brand Registry is just a really nice insurance policy to have as we expand our brand.”
Adam Craft
Founder, Elevated Craft
Phoenix, AZ
“I understood that to make this brand and this product work, you would have to be able to tell a story. You have to figure out how to educate people and bring them into the journey of Manuka. Amazon has been so amazing for bringing our story to life.”
Sarah Scarlett
Founder, First Honey
Nashville, TN
A+ Content
Brands can add A+ Content to product detail pages, bringing their brand story to life through rich text, image carousels, and video, which can help brands increase customer interest and sales by up to 20 percent. Within A+ Content, brands can also utilize shoppable comparison charts to help customers make an informed purchase decision, which has a cart conversion rate that is two times higher than that of non-shoppable modules. Additionally, brands can utilize new A+ Content features that use generative AI to automatically create rich imagery for brands for free–making it easier to add A+ content and reducing content creation time from weeks to minutes.
Brand Analytics
Brand Analytics dashboards provide brand owners with insights on how their product listings are performing as well as information on how customers are finding their products. This tool now features more search performance insights to provide brands with anonymized data to better understand customers’ interests and shopping choices while also providing directly actionable insights. These are shown to brands visually, and they can also download this data for further analysis.
Customer Loyalty Analytics
Within Amazon’s Brand Analytics features, independent sellers can utilize data found on the Customer Loyalty Analytics dashboard to better understand sales trends across customers that have shopped their products. The data is split up into four, easy-to-understand categories that can help sellers identify customer spending habits, purchase frequency and groups of customers to potentially engage with to help boost future sales.
“I use the Brand Analytics tools a lot. They have a lot of data, which helps me know if it’s advisable to launch a particular new product and which new keywords I should use.”
Nadia Williams
Founder, Crafts And The City
New York, NY
Brand Stores
Brand Stores offer brand owners a dedicated place in Amazon’s store for their brand to engage, convert, and build loyalty with millions of Amazon customers. Within a Brand Store, brands can showcase their full suite of products, drive product education, and tell their unique brand story with engaging content, including lifestyle imagery and videos. Creating and maintaining a Brand Store is free, and Amazon provides easy-to-use tools that make it simple for brands to create them.
Seller Assistant
Analyzing business metrics, getting advice, and having an expert selling assistant available has never been easier. Amazon’s new generative AI-powered Seller Assistant serves as an always-on expert, providing immediate responses to seller questions about their unique businesses and products. Because the Seller Assistant understands sellers, their specific products and business, and how to be a successful Amazon seller, sellers can get helpful advice and guidance that is personalized for them. Amazon continues to enhance the Seller Assistant's capabilities to offer more personalized insights, anticipate more of a sellers' needs, and to offer to take more actions on a seller’s behalf—helping them save time and effort.
“I was looking for some instructions that I could share back with my new employee so they know how to actually do this process themselves and put together some quick documentation of this is process, but the Seller Assistant really laid it out so I don't need to write that. I love that. Made it easier for me.”
Seller Assistant user
Generative AI-Powered Listing Creation
Amazon has streamlined product listing creation with AI-powered tools that help independent sellers create high-quality listings faster and with less effort. When listing products in the Amazon store, sellers need to enter multiple attributes like quantity, size, and color to help customers make informed purchases. Sellers can simply describe their products in just a few words, upload a single image, or provide a URL from their existing website, and the AI generates Amazon-style titles and comprehensive product listings using customer insights and shopping data. Amazon has also added the ability for sellers to upload a spreadsheet with basic details to create multiple listings at once.
Amazon’s AI-powered listing tool can automatically suggest over 65% of necessary attributes when sellers are creating new listings. Details like a descriptive title, bullet points, and color are automatically recommended and accepted by sellers 90% of the time—saving sellers time and making new listing creation easier than ever.
More than 900,000 Amazon independent sellers have used generative AI-powered listing creation tools since it launched in 2023.
AI Image and Video Generator
Our new AI-powered Image and Video Generator allows independent sellers to quickly and easily create ad-ready product lifestyle creative. When independent sellers select a product to advertise, the tool uses product details and reviews content to automatically create relevant backgrounds, images with motion, or videos—like an energy drink alongside popular activities instead of against a white background. This advanced technology in the hands of small businesses helps their products come to life in advertising and helps them scale their businesses—and it does so instantly and for free, which saves sellers time and money.
Supporting independent sellers wherever they choose to sell
98% of survey respondents sell through two or more sales channels, and the average seller utilizes three online and two other (primarily physical in-store) sales channels.8
National Small Retailer Attitudes Survey," TechNet and Ipsos, accessed April 1, 2025.
Sellers have more choices than ever when it comes to where they can sell their products—from their own website or physical store, through Amazon or other service providers, within traditional physical retailers, through social media, and more. As sellers’ needs have continued to evolve, Amazon is working to support sellers wherever they choose to sell—in Amazon’s store and beyond. Amazon’s warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment services, customer reviews, and ability for Prime customers to receive fast, free shipping are just a few of the capabilities that are now available for sellers to use for their sales made outside the Amazon store.
Supply Chain by Amazon
Since the successful launch of Fulfillment by Amazon in 2006, Amazon has released a range of advanced fulfillment services to support independent sellers in dealing with the last part of the product journey—from a fulfillment center to the customer. Supply Chain by Amazon (SCA) aims to revolutionize the entire journey by offering a fast, reliable, end-to-end set of supply chain services that provide independent sellers with a complete, automated solution for moving products from manufacturing locations to customer doorsteps around the world. Amazon will pick up inventory from manufacturing facilities, guide it through freight services and customs, handle long-term warehousing and storage, multi-channel distribution to all of a seller’s sales channels, and then automate replenishment to fulfillment centers, where it can be used to service customer orders—in Amazon’s store or wherever a seller sells their products. The newest SCA service is Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), which is used to store products in bulk at very low costs. Seller use of AWD has increased nearly 10x from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024.
How Supply Chain by Amazon works
Global transportation services are available for nearly 80% of independent sellers’ inventory in Fulfillment by Amazon.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment
Today, brands have more options than ever to sell their products across multiple channels. While selling through their own websites, social media platforms, and other services helps sellers reach more customers, it also means they have to figure out how to allocate inventory and manage fulfillment for all these different orders. With Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, sellers can simplify their fulfillment and delivery by having Amazon pick, pack, ship, and deliver all of their orders. This allows sellers to maintain one pool of inventory across all of their sales channels, which reduces how much inventory they have to manufacture and the associated capital investment, and it allows sellers to leverage Amazon’s fast and reliable delivery to service customers across their sales channels.
With Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF), independent sellers can use the same pool of existing inventory to fulfill customer orders from sales channels outside of the Amazon store. Over 300,000 independent sellers worldwide use Amazon MCF to pick, pack, and ship customer orders from their own website, social media stores, and sales channels like Etsy and eBay.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment uses Amazon’s fulfillment network, which has an average “click-to-door speed” over 50% faster than other retailers. 9
“Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment has revolutionized my business. I simply drop off inventory at the post office, and Amazon handles the rest, even fulfilling orders from my Shopify website. They notify me about low stock and recommend reorder quantities based on my sales. It's like having a logistics expert running that part of my business automatically.”
Lizz Rene
Creator and Founder of PO' UP!
Washington, DC
Scott Houdashell, Co-founder, Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Curtis McGill, Co-founder, Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Amarillo, TX
Amarillo, TX
Meet the seller: Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Hey Buddy Hey Pal leverages Amazon's Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) as their operational engine. Amazon MCF processes orders from all their sales channels—Amazon, their website, other retailers, and seasonal TV promotions—through Amazon’s nationwide fulfillment network. While the boxes look different depending on the retailer, Hey Buddy Hey Pal customers get Amazon's fast shipping speeds and great customer service no matter where they purchase.
“When the orders come in, we know they'll be processed properly, shipped on time, and delivered to happy customers,” McGill explained. “That reliability has changed everything about how we grow our business”.
With Amazon MCF as their logistics backbone, Hey Buddy Hey Pal now actively pursues holiday television promotions and influencer partnerships, confidently handling surges of up to 20,000 orders per day, with same-day shipping for more than 95% of their orders.
"We went from dreading large order volumes to actively seeking them out," McGill said.
With reliable fulfillment in place, Hey Buddy Hey Pal's growth accelerated. Since starting to use Amazon MCF in 2022, they've seen 30% year-over-year growth in sales, helping drive total company revenue to $12 million last year.
The increased revenue coupled with time saved on logistics has allowed the best friends to focus on product development. They've expanded from their original Eggmazing decorator to a full line of creative products, including their successful ornament decorator which contributed to a 34% year-over-year growth in holiday sales.
“When you're not spending hours troubleshooting shipping issues, you can actually innovate,” McGill said. “Since partnering with Amazon for fulfillment, we've launched six new products, secured additional patents, and reduced our product development cycle by 60%.” Their latest innovation, the Cake-N-Bake decorator, went from concept to launch in just six months—a process that previously would have taken over a year.
As they scale, Hey Buddy Hey Pal increasingly relies on Amazon's suite of business solutions. They utilize Brand Registry to protect their intellectual property and maintain brand integrity in Amazon's store. They use advertising tools to reach new customers, and Brand Analytics to inform product development decisions.
“Each Amazon solution has strengthened our business,” McGill explained. This confidence led them to recently implement Supply Chain by Amazon (SCA), which leverages Amazon's advanced logistics, warehousing, distribution, fulfillment, and transportation to move products from factories worldwide to customers’ doors.
“The results speak for themselves. Amazon has proven themselves at every step of our growth, and SCA gives us capabilities we never thought possible as a small business.”
With SCA, Hey Buddy Hey Pal has reduced their inventory holding costs by 40% and dropped their average time to restock from 14 days down to five, increasing their inventory efficiency by 25%. These improvements have allowed them to be more responsive to customer demands and capitalize on trends faster than ever.
Looking ahead, Hey Buddy Hey Pal is preparing for their biggest year yet. “We're committed to over 30,000 units for upcoming national TV appearances,” McGill noted. “The reliability of Amazon's fulfillment network means we can confidently say yes to these opportunities. We're competing with the biggest brands in our space.”
“It's amazing what two guys from West Texas can accomplish with the right support,” McGill reflected. “In the toy industry, you have to be ready when lightning strikes. With Amazon, we're not just ready—we're one step ahead.”
Hey Buddy Hey Pal
Fulfilling their potential: Hey Buddy Hey Pal scales with Amazon.
Six times a year, Hey Buddy Hey Pal will take to TV screens, appearing on morning show segments like CBS' “Deals and Steals," and when they do, they process upwards of 16,000 orders in a single day without missing a beat. For many small businesses, this kind of sudden demand would be overwhelming. But for Curtis McGill and Scott Houdashell, it's just another successful day of operations.
Six times a year, Hey Buddy Hey Pal will take to TV screens, appearing on morning show segments like CBS' “Deals and Steals," and when they do, they process upwards of 16,000 orders in a single day without missing a beat. For many small businesses, this kind of sudden demand would be overwhelming. But for Curtis McGill and Scott Houdashell, it's just another successful day of operations.
“We've come a long way since our Shark Tank appearance,” McGill said with a smile. Now the #1 best-selling Easter toy in Amazon's store for the last five years, Hey Buddy Hey Pal has transformed from a Texas startup into a multi-million dollar brand by mastering what McGill referred to as “the most efficient and effective way to scale on the planet”.
Brands experienced, on average, a 16% increase in revenue per visitor using Buy with Prime.10
This data point is based on A/B testing results collected between July 2023 and June 2024 from 167 merchants. The data measures the average increase in revenue generated when Buy with Prime was a purchase option versus when it was not, during the same time period.
"After adding Buy with Prime, we saw an immediate conversion lift, which is what any marketer, any brand, and company wants. Seeing a 40% jump in conversion was astonishing for us. It helps us carry out our mission to reduce single-use plastic water bottle pollution."
Oliver Crane
COO, Epic Water Filters
Niwot, CO
1/4
2/4
3/4
4/4
Buy with Prime
Buy with Prime is a one-of-a-kind offering that empowers brands to grow their business by offering Prime shopping benefits, including fast, free delivery, easy returns, and 24/7 shopper support on their direct-to-consumer website. With Buy with Prime, businesses can expand their reach and connect with an audience of millions of Prime members while providing a reliable, trusted checkout experience that customers know and love. Businesses can easily integrate Buy with Prime with popular website hosting platforms like Shopify and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. By displaying fast delivery and customer reviews from Amazon, businesses using Buy with Prime can help boost conversion rates and increase their revenue.
Aliett Buttelman, Co-founder, Fazit
Nina LaBruna, Co-founder, Fazit
West Palm Beach, FL
Meet the seller: Fazit
Next-Gen co-founders write a new retail playbook with Amazon.
West Palm Beach, FL
When Taylor Swift appeared wearing Fazit's signature gold glitter freckles at an NFL game in October 2024, the founders didn't need to schedule meetings with retail buyers or plan a marketing campaign. They increased their Amazon warehouse capacity, and processed seven figures in sales within 48 hours.
Two weeks later, when Swift’s Eras concert returned to North America, they described walking into stadiums of 80,000 people and “one in three girls” were wearing Fazit products. “We're a fast beauty company. We want to give people trends as quickly as possible,” said Buttelman. “Amazon is our only retail partner that can match that speed and scale.”
It’s one reason Fazit offers their complete product line on Amazon, treating it as their flagship store. With other retail partnerships, the founders create capsule collections, treating shelf space like an Instagram reel—showcasing their best-sellers for each specific audience.
“Gen Z values shopping differently—we want experiences and accessibility,” explained Buttelman. “Our in-store collections create moments, while Amazon is for immediate access to our complete line. Each retail space serves a different purpose in reaching our customer.”
Even customer relationships look different under this model. Instead of one-way advertising messages, Fazit relies on direct feedback through Amazon reviews and in-person activations with pop-up shops and their branded campus bus to drive product development. When customers request new designs or variations, they can respond immediately in their Amazon store – which they did with the launch of their ‘rose gold’ freckles in under eight weeks.
Amazon's suite of tools for small businesses is designed to be a growth engine. Built-in trust drives first-time purchases, customer reviews build brand credibility, and real-time data informs business decisions. As an “emerging brand with limited resources,” said Buttelman, “these tools level the playing field.”
On top of that, Amazon’s new marketing levers continue to help sellers grow their business. While Fazit's founders excel at creating viral moments on TikTok and Instagram, they leverage Amazon's Influencer Program to convert that social media attention into actual sales. “Being a small team, having access to Amazon's influencer community who already shops through their Amazon storefronts is invaluable,” Buttelman said.
It's all adding up to success. From 2023 to 2024, total Fazit sales grew 4,200%. From just two employees in 2022, Fazit has grown to six full-time employees and a team of specialized contractors. Buttelman splits her time between New York City and Fazit headquarters in Florida, while her co-founder operates from Los Angeles. Their warehouse sits in Missouri, positioned centrally for optimal distribution.
“We're not bound by traditional business rules or borders,” Buttelman explained. “Our team works remotely across multiple time zones, which gives us constant pulse points with key customer segments across the country. We can spot trends in LA, validate them in New York, and have product rolling out of Kansas City within weeks.”
Traditional models don’t work when you’re setting trends, they said. It’s no longer about choosing between digital and physical presence, one location or another. Fazit’s using Amazon's tools to be everywhere—from college campuses to concert venues, social media to shopping malls. It's a model that creates jobs across regions, meets customers in their moment, and allows them to capitalize on every opportunity to build long-term growth.
“The future of retail isn't about choosing between digital and physical presence,” Buttelman said. “It's about having partners like Amazon who understand that success comes from being everywhere your customers are, while creating jobs and opportunities along the way.”
A new generation of small business owners are fundamentally changing how American retail operates. Where traditional brands plan their seasonal launches from a corner office, beauty brand Fazit’s Gen Z founders run their rapidly growing business from the country’s fashion capitals, meeting their customers at concerts and college campuses and launching products real-time in response to the demand.
Fazit
A new generation of small business owners are fundamentally changing how American retail operates. Where traditional brands plan their seasonal launches from a corner office, beauty brand Fazit’s Gen Z founders run their rapidly growing business from the country’s fashion capitals, meeting their customers at concerts and college campuses and launching products real-time in response to the demand.
“The old playbook doesn't work on the next generation,” explains Aliett Buttelman, who co-founded Fazit with Nina LaBruna in 2022, their second beauty brand in less than five years. “You can't wait six months to respond to what customers want today.”
For this venture, Buttelman and LaBruna knew they needed a different approach. They chose to launch in the Amazon store, where their innovative skincare and makeup patches could reach customers immediately.
“Amazon eliminated the traditional barriers to entry,” Buttelman explained. “Instead of waiting months for retail placement, we could launch products instantly and let customer demand drive our expansion.”
Local business, lasting impact: how independent sellers strengthen communities
2/4
1/4
3/4
4/4
“Our success in Amazon's store has enabled us to open this brick-and-mortar location in Dallas. With Amazon, we can grow our business and reach customers around the world. With our local store, we can build community and connect with people one-on-one. It's the best of both worlds–global growth and local impact."
Unoma Okorafor
Founder & CEO, Herbal Goodness
Dallas, TX
As independent sellers build thriving businesses, that success flows back into the community and fuels local economies by creating valuable jobs, leasing warehouse space, opening physical storefronts, and frequently, giving back to local organizations. From major cities to rural towns across all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, independent sellers are demonstrating how a small business’s success can translate into tangible benefits for their local community. As just one powerful example, in 2024, sellers employed more than 2 million people in the US in support of their business selling in Amazon’s store.
Beyond hiring for local jobs, independent sellers in the US demonstrate additional local economic impact:
- 47% report contracting with local service providers
- 49% rent local office or warehouse spaces.
Independent seller job creation
In 2024, independent sellers employed over 2 million people in the US to support their Amazon-related businesses.
Independent sellers in the US support local jobs—more than 65% employ at least one person within 50 miles of their primary business location.
The 10 states where independent sellers support the most jobs: California,
New York,
Texas,
Florida,
Georgia,
Illinois,
Pennsylvania, Washington,
New Jersey,
and North Carolina.
Sellers in rural areas and small towns grew sales more than 30% year-over-year.
More than 75% of independent sellers report growing their US workforce since selling in Amazon’s store, underscoring Amazon’s role in driving domestic job growth.
There are Amazon independent sellers in all 50 states, including Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
The impact of independent sellers extends across the nation, with jobs created in all 50 states and Washington, DC.
The states with the largest number of sellers in rural areas and small towns:
- Texas
- Wisconsin
- New York
- Michigan
5. California
6. Missouri
7. Iowa
8. Ohio
9. Colorado
10. Minnesota
Sellers in Your Community
Amazon’s Sellers in Your Community (SIYC) is a program dedicated to connecting and championing small and medium-sized business owners who are making a positive impact in their local communities. SIYC provides independent sellers with opportunities to share their stories, build connections, and take advantage of educational resources and events designed to help increase their visibility to community leaders. By connecting independent sellers with local decision-makers—which includes leaders, organizations, and other small business owners—SIYC aims to help amplify their impact as educators and inspirations in the places they work and live.
Ships in Product Packaging
The Ships in Product Packaging program offers independent sellers that use Fulfillment by Amazon the opportunity to ship products to customers in their own original packaging without any Amazon-added material. This means independent sellers can use their own branding to improve their connection with customers while minimizing additional packaging materials and waste for the customer and the environment. This also saves Amazon fulfillment costs, which are passed along to independent sellers through discounts for sellers ensuring their products can ship in their own packaging.
Independent sellers saved over $450 million by participating in the Ships in Product Packaging program in 2024.
In 2024, Amazon donated or helped independent sellers donate nearly 165 million products worldwide.
FBA Donations
The FBA Donations program allows independent sellers that use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to donate eligible products, including returns, to families and individuals in need through Amazon’s nonprofit partners. In addition to outlet sales, liquidation, and other options, FBA Donations are one more way that sellers can ensure their products reach people that want and can use them.
Atlanta, GA
"These students amaze me," Marshall shared. "They're curious about how we use their garden's ingredients in our products, and they're full of questions about hair care and what works for them. When they learn how I built Ecoslay by filling a [customer] need, they start to see possibilities for themselves. We're planting seeds of entrepreneurship alongside their herbs."
This educational initiative represents just one branch of Marshall's vision for community transformation, a vision made possible by her company's remarkable growth in Amazon's store. Since joining in 2020, Ecoslay’s Amazon sales have increased from $75,000 to over $1 million annually, becoming their fastest growing sales channel. “It's allowed us to invest more in local hiring, partnerships, and teaching the next generation,” Marshall explained.
“As we grow, Amazon grows with us,” Marshall said. “Each new tool and program they offer becomes another opportunity to advance our mission.”
As orders increase, Marshall reinvests. Rather than outsourcing production, she creates jobs at her Atlanta factory. Using Amazon's inventory management tools for forecasting, Marshall can predict demand and maintain steady employment for her team, while Fulfillment by Amazon, where Amazon manages all fulfillment and shipping, ensures reliable delivery to customers nationwide.
All of this success enabled the launch of the Ecoslay Foundation in 2023, focused on addressing housing insecurity through employment opportunities. Through partnerships with Atlanta Mission and HEY! Atlanta, Ecoslay helps community members transition to stable jobs, offering double the minimum wage along with comprehensive benefits.
“I don't want us to be just another brand. We're creating real opportunities in our community,” said Marshall.
For Marshall, this mission is deeply personal. During the 2008 financial crisis, she faced potential homelessness despite her background as a successful software developer. That experience shaped her understanding of how quickly circumstances can change, and more importantly, how transformative the right opportunity can be.
Today, the ripple effect of Ecoslay's impact flows through Atlanta's communities. From jobs to agricultural education, Marshall is creating opportunities that change lives. At Chattahoochee Hills, students learn that success and community impact grow together. At her factory, employees build stable futures with living wages and benefits. Through the foundation, people facing housing insecurity find pathways to independence.
"We're transforming Atlanta's future by creating a cycle of opportunity and education," Marshall said. With Amazon's tools and infrastructure supporting her business growth, she's able to focus on making a lasting impact—building a blueprint for community-driven economic development that starts with great jobs, empowers education, and plants seeds for future growth.
Adria Marshall, Founder & CEO, Ecoslay
Ecoslay
Atlanta, GA
In the sunny fields of Chattahoochee Hills Charter School, just outside Atlanta, education takes root in unexpected ways. Students gather around beds of chamomile and okra, their science lessons blooming alongside the plants they tend. This isn't just a school garden—it's where business innovation meets education, sustainability intersects with opportunity, and local impact grows into community transformation.
At the heart of this innovative program is Adria Marshall, founder of Ecoslay, a natural hair care company that began as a kitchen experiment in 2019, and has grown into a $3 million business in under five years. Once a month, she visits the school, transforming their agriculture lessons into real-world entrepreneurship discussions, showing students how natural ingredients cultivated in their garden can become successful products.
Meet the seller: Ecoslay
Growing opportunity in Atlanta.
In the sunny fields of Chattahoochee Hills Charter School, just outside Atlanta, education takes root in unexpected ways. Students gather around beds of chamomile and okra, their science lessons blooming alongside the plants they tend. This isn't just a school garden—it's where business innovation meets education, sustainability intersects with opportunity, and local impact grows into community transformation.
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
3/4
2/4
1/4
4/4
Learn more about Ecoslay's partnership journey with Amazon
Play video
To learn more about how independent sellers succeed with Amazon, go to Selling Partner Perspectives
Read more