At Amazon we work hard to support small and medium businesses across Europe in selling both in their country and abroad, creating new jobs and granting better access to international markets. Amazon works with more than 900,000 independent small and medium sized partners in Europe, including selling partners, App developers, Kindle book authors, and delivery providers.
A key part of this support are our small business Accelerator programs, which launched across Europe in June 2020 to help entrepreneurs and small businesses digitization programs succeed in the digital world.
The programs are delivered in collaboration with associations and universities, and they have already supported hundreds of thousands of small businesses. They offer self-service learning, events and bootcamps, with topics covered spanning everything from logistics to online marketing.
One of the small businesses who have benefited from the UK program is Little Danube, a vegan and natural soap bar business, which accessed the resources right at the start of their business journey:
"We were a part of the Amazon Small Business Accelerator when we launched the business, which gave me the tools to shape my business model…It helped me make my business compliant, implement requirements (like barcodes) and optimize my supply chain. Not only has Amazon helped me to get my business off the ground, but…Being supported by one of the most innovative companies in history has been hugely inspiring."
These programs are built by working with other organizations and some governments’ agencies to offer free access to online training, expert advice, live events, and services, and they include the Amazon Small Business Accelerator in the UK, Quickstart Online in Germany, Despega in Spain, Accelera con Amazon in Italy, and Accelerateur du Numerique in France.
Another small business who has accessed an accelerator is SPORT AND TREND, a Spanish sports equipment and accessories business:
We decided to start selling on Amazon since day one, back in 2016 when we launched our company. However, we joined Despega last year to expand our Business and learn more about selling online. The courses available focusing on exports have been very helpful to sell abroad and increase sales. In fact, 74% of our sales are international.
The breadth of resources available through the programs is an important part of what is on offer. It isn’t just about considering logistics or how to set up a presence on the Amazon store, but also things like how to increase the impact a small business can have on social media. Sophie Lewis of Hello Falcon had this to say about her experience of the program:
“The Amazon Small Business Accelerator has so many amazing videos that have helped to develop my small business. I feel I have benefited the most from those focusing on how to use social media and creating content. I found it very useful to understand how to maximize my social media presence whilst driving traffic to my store. It was also interesting to discover that different types of advertising and storytelling are more suited to certain types of media platform, but you can re-use images and tweak depending on the audience.”
Over 250,000 people have accessed the small business digitization programs across Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK so far, and we are committed to continuing our support small and medium businesses in the future.
You can read about SMB success on Amazon in our latest European SMB Community Impact Report here.
