Deadline approaching for Grant Applications; Survey Results Share Insight about Small Business Secto
Amazon continues its support for small businesses that make up a significant portion of its online vendor base. As part of Small Business Month, Amazon Business, the Amazon business procurement storefront, announced its 2023 Small Business Grants and the results its poll of small business decisionmakers.
The grants spur innovation and support the growth of small businesses that have a key role in local communities. The findings of the poll show small business owners having “optimism and resilience in the face of a challenging economic climate”. Over half (55%) said they are now more hopeful about their business’ success than one year ago.
When 500 small business decision makers were asked to list their top challenges, they made high inflation (63%), economic recession (39%), and supply chain disruptions (30%) their top three. They also voiced the importance they place on financial resilience. Accordingly, 61% put emphasis on both saving money and staying within budget when purchasing over the next 12 months.
The poll also inquired about how small businesses seek out new ways to drive future growth. One way has been to streamline business purchases, while product prices also may impact their ability to reduce costs and drive growth.
While more innovative products and services are being introduced into the market that small businesses can afford such as RobotLab’s Pepper Robot, being able to find them easily is a hurdle. They cite making a purchase in a convenient way is key for them to improve efficiency.
There was high consensus among the small business decision makers with: 91% report finding affordable products within their price range as a key factor for long term growth, 88% put emphasis on the ease of finding needed products and 90% indicated that making a purchase easy is also a key factor.
“Our small-business customers face unique challenges and are operating with more limited resources—every dollar and minute they save helps them focus their energy on growing their businesses,” said Todd Heimes, director of Amazon Business Worldwide. “With Amazon Business, small businesses get the selection and convenience of Amazon, alongside powerful tools that help them make buying decisions that drive towards their business goals, automate the procurement process, and save money with business pricing.”
This year’s Amazon Business’ Small Business Grants program is open for applications through May 21st. Those eligible U.S. small businesses may win over $250,000 in grants. The content is open to existing Amazon Business customers with annual revenues less than $1 million. They vie to win the grand-prize, or be one of a group of finalists, and semifinalists receiving monetary grants, Business Prime memberships, select Amazon devices, and more.
Winners will be announced on July 17. For additional information and to apply, visit this page on Amazon Small Business Grants. To learn about the 2022 grant winners and how they used their awards, visit the 2022 recipients page.
Heimes, speaking for Amazon Business, sees small businesses as the backbone of the U.S. economy and in that role they positively impact all those surrounding them. Amazon Business focuses on helping small businesses, as well as schools, nonprofits, and others, on how best to reshape their procurement process to achieve cost and time savings, greater productivity, and insightful purchasing analytics. Their Small Business Grants is another way Amazon helps them.
“At Amazon Business, we are committed to the growth of small businesses and invest in education, grants, and tools to help them overcome challenges they face, and free up time and resources to focus on their mission and customers,” said Heimes.
