From The Verge: Amazon is introducing a new section of its massive online store called Amazon Storefronts, which will sell products exclusively from “U.S. small and medium-sized businesses” that are on Amazon.
The new page will feature over 1 million products from almost 20,000 companies, along with curated collections, deals, videos, and stories highlighting individual companies. Each week, there will be a featured “Storefront of the Week” for a specific company selling on Amazon, along with a series of “Meet the Business Owner” profiles.
Some of the smaller companies that will receive high-profile attention from Amazon are sure to be glad for the extra PR and the dedicated section. But it’s hard to shake the air of “Gee whiz, aren’t small mom-and-pop US-based businesses great? We’re a relatable company that helps people run their companies better, not one that is slowly killing off smaller retail stores that can’t possibly compete with Amazon’s superior and cheaper supply chain management and replacing them with Chinese merchants! That’s not Amazon!”
The definition of what Amazon considers a “US small and medium-sized business” also seems pretty flexible. There’s the Little Flower Soap Company, which is set to be the subject of Amazon’s “first-ever national television commercial featuring real businesses that sell on Amazon” (an incredibly specific milestone that essentially means nothing to anyone who doesn’t work at Amazon). But the storefront also features wholly digital products like Kindle Unlimited books that are only debatably a “US-based business” and major tech products like the Eero mesh Wi-Fi router, the ChefSteps Joule, and the Essential Phone. Those probably not what most people have in mind when they think of homegrown American small business.
View: Article @ Source Site
