Despite the severe impact of COVID-19 on the small business sector, according to Amazon’s 2020 Small and Medium Business (SMB) Impact Report SMBs in America working with Amazon have not just avoided major hardship but have thrived during this difficult time. Over the 12 months leading up to May 31st, 2020, Amazon’s SMB sellers within the US reported over 3.4 billion products sold, a significant year-over-year increase from 2.7 billion.
During this same period SMB sellers averaged over $160,000 in sales, and the number of those surpassing $1 million grew by more than 20%. More than 3,700 of them reached this sales milestone for their first time. On Amazon Business alone, sales from American SMBs totaled more than $7 billion and those selling through the Amazon.com U.S. store supported approximately 1.1 million jobs.
“COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work and has created daunting challenges for small businesses around the world. Yet smaller companies have continued to grow with Amazon, despite the crisis. Third-party sellers have seen record sales in our stores and continue to outpace our first-party sales,” says Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke.
Amazon’s numerous systems and programs benefit more than just SMBs during these times. Line haul service providers moving Amazon packages now employ 13,000 drivers, compared to only 3,700 in 2018. Kindle Direct Publishing enables thousands of worldwide independent authors to publish their books. Since May 31st, 2019, these authors earned over $319 million from KDP’s Select Global Fund.
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