While Amazon might be the epitome of big business, more than half of all products purchased on its UK website are actually sold by small and independent businesses. To help consumers support the 85,000+ small businesses on the online marketplace, Amazon has recently launched its Small Business Gift Finder service.

As well as supporting small and medium-sized businesses, the Small Business Gift Finder helps consumers “shop local” by highlighting retailers by region.

Shoppers can also easily identify products sold by small business sellers across the online marketplace by looking out for the Small Business Badge.

Small Business Growth

According to data released by Amazon, small business sellers on Amazon have enjoyed considerable growth over the last 12-month period, selling more than 950 million products, an increase of 200 million on the previous year. Amazon estimates that this opportunity has created approximately 250,000 jobs across the UK.

Speaking to journalists, John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager, said, “Last year, over half of the products sold across Black Friday through to Cyber Monday on Amazon worldwide came from independent selling partners, most of whom were small and medium-sized businesses. This year, we’re making it easier than ever for customers to support small, local businesses with our Small Business Storefront and Small Business Badge to easily identify products sold by small businesses. On top of that, for the very first time, we are offering customers exciting experiences alongside small business deals as a way to demonstrate buying from small local businesses can have an outsized impact on our economy and bring even more joy to our lives.”

How Does Amazon Define a Small Business?

While we should applaud Amazon’s support for small businesses, many online marketplace sellers might struggle to identify with the retail giant’s definition of what a small business looks like.

According to the small print on the site, Amazon defines a small business as having fewer than 250 employees and with an annual turnover of no more than EUR 50 million. Whether you identify with that definition or not, online marketplaces create opportunities for small (and even micro-sized) businesses to compete on a level playing field with much larger peers.

Learn More

To learn more about how Frooition can help small businesses grow on online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, as well as their own eCommerce websites, book a free 15-minute discovery call with one of our online retail experts today.