Amazon announced the US winners of the Small Business Spotlight Awards, including: Small Business of the Year, Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year, and Small Business Owner Under 30 of the Year.
Interestingly one winner was an artisan who sells on Amazon Handmade.
The three winners were:
Small Business of the Year: nutpods – Bellevue, WA-based small business nutpods, founded by Madeline Haydon, began selling plant-based creamer on Amazon in 2015. Today, nutpods has a team of 24 employees and has grown sales 5,500% in Amazon’s stores.
Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year: 1818 Farms – Mooresville, AL-based small business 1818 Farms began as a family project for Natasha McCrary in 2012 and evolved quickly into a booming business. In 2017, Natasha listed her handcrafted bath and lifestyle products on Amazon Handmade and has now grown to 12 employees and doubled her Amazon sales year-over-year.
Small Business Owner Under 30 of the Year: Habit Nest – Los Angeles, CA-based small business Habit Nest was launched by Michael Ahdoot and his cofounders in 2017. Inspired by the idea of helping others, Habit Nest creates journals that help people build better habits quickly and effectively. Since listing products in Amazon’s stores, Habit Nest has seen 300% year-over-year growth.
Amazon said the awards “honor and celebrate inspiring, unique, and customer-obsessed small businesses selling in Amazon’s stores.”
Over 1,300 American small businesses nominated themselves for the awards, and on October 15, 18 finalists, six per category, were announced and the contest opened up for customer voting to select the winners. Customer voting concluded on November 8.
Award winners will receive a prize package including six months of Amazon Strategic Account Services, Sponsored Products advertising credits, and promotion on Amazon.com.
Winners will also receive a trip to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters to meet with Amazon leaders and learn more about the tools and services Amazon provides to help sellers grow and scale their businesses.
Amazon used the announcement to share some statistics about its merchants:
Amazon said independent third-party sellers – primarily small and medium-sized businesses – made up 58% of all physical gross merchandise sold in Amazon’s stores in 2018, and their sales far exceeded $2 billion on Prime Day in July this year.
In October, Amazon announced Amazon Storefronts, its curated destination to shop exclusively from American small and medium-sized businesses, has surpassed 2.5 million products from nearly 30,000 companies.
In the last 12 months, U.S. small and medium-sized businesses with products in Storefronts have sold more than 250 million items to more than 70 million unique customers.
Amazon also announced it has created its first Small Business Gift Guide at amazon.com/smallbusinessgiftguide, and it said on Saturday, November 30, “holiday deals exclusively from small and medium-sized businesses will be featured on amazon.com/HoliDeals.”
