New York

In 2018, Patrick Jones stood in his fourth-floor Manhattan walk-up, surrounded by DIY candle-making supplies. Living in the crowded city with limited access to nature, he had a simple idea: if you can’t get out to nature, bring nature to you.

“If you had told me in my twenties that I would start a home fragrance business from my tiny Manhattan apartment, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Jones recalled. But what began with a simple candle-making kit evolved into Outdoor Fellow, a growing family-run business now reaching homes across America through his Amazon store.

Nadia Williams had a lifelong dream of owning her own business. Inspired by the idea of providing relief to over-worked women, she created Crafts and the City, a line of self-care products that bring the spa experience directly into the home. Crafts and the City’s SOO JELLY! jelly pedicure packs and aromatherapy shower steamers have become best-sellers, particularly over the holiday season when Williams’ Amazon sales double.

Fulfillment by Amazon has been instrumental in helping Williams manage the rush of seasonal sales, not only ensuring customers receive their goods in time for their gift-giving needs, but also in housing enough inventory to meet all her orders—something Williams says she would be unable to do from her apartment.

For college best friends Tracy Vontélle Green and Nancey Harris, a casual phone conversation about the difficulty of finding a comfortable pair of glasses planted the seed for a new business venture: an inclusive eyewear company dedicated to fitting more face types.

Shortly after launching Vontélle Eyewear in 2020, the friends started to get orders from overseas. To successfully scale overseas, they realized they needed help. They launched in the Amazon store, using Fulfillment by Amazon to reach customers in different regions.

Since launching its Amazon storefront, Vontélle Eyewear’s revenue has doubled year-over-year and entered new markets across Mexico and Canada through Amazon Global Selling. The founders say their ultimate goal is to be the number one eyewear company in the world, which they believe they can achieve with help from Amazon.

As father to a daughter with nut allergies, Baked Cravings CEO Craig Watson saw there was a gap in the market for nut-free baked goods. So when the opportunity for him to open his own bakery in East Harlem presented itself, he jumped on it.

Soon after opening Baked Cravings in 2017, Watson launched a line of cookies and cakes in an Amazon storefront. His nut-free sweets quickly became a hit, not just with consumers but with business buyers who discovered his products on Amazon Business. As a result of the business connections forged on Amazon, Watson’s been able to grow Baked Cravings into a national brand, sold in supermarkets across the country.

Kapuluan owner and CEO Felipe Vasconcelos has a track record of buying and scaling beauty brands. When he acquired the coconut oil-based hair and skincare company in 2019, he used Amazon’s suite of market research and customer data tools to expand its product line and double revenue year-over-year.

After Nancy Kalish promoted her Brooklyn-based baked goods business, Rule Breaker Snacks, on a popular television show, orders for her gluten-free vegan and kosher brownies and blondies exploded with an immediate demand of 10x her normal monthly sales. Luckily, Amazon was there to help.

“Not only did they ship all our Amazon orders in a timely manner, but by using Multi-Channel Fulfillment, we were able to ship orders placed on RuleBreakerSnacks.com just as speedily,” said Kalish, a former health journalist-turned-entrepreneur.

Today, Rule Breaker Snacks products are available in more than 4,000 retailers across the country, with sales expected to triple over the next year.