A key goal for Prime Day 2021 was helping Amazon's small business selling partners connect with new customers and grow their sales. As part of a new $100 million investment to help small business sellers succeed, Amazon funded a Spend $10, get $10 promotion in the days leading up to Prime Day. With the promo, Prime members received a $10 credit to spend on Prime Day when they spent $10 on small business products offered by more than 300,000 sellers in Amazon's store during the two-week lead-up to Prime Day—from June 7 to 20.
In the first twenty-four hours of the promotion, more than 2.5 million customers bought products from small businesses. After the full two week period, customers had spent over $1.9 billion on more than 70 million items, which was more than a 100% year-over-year increase on sales compared to the Prime Day 2020 promotion in October. Small businesses from all 50 states participated in the lead-up promotion, with Delaware, Wyoming, and California seeing the highest sales of small business products per capita.
The momentum continued for Amazon’s selling partners—almost all of whom are small and medium businesses—during Prime Day, June 21-22. The sales event was the biggest two-day period ever for Amazon’s third-party sellers, growing even more than Amazon’s retail business.
On Amazon Live, celebrities Kristen Bell, Karamo Brown, and Mindy Kaling interviewed small business owners from companies such as Pawstruck, a dog treat company, and Kanda Chocolates, during the small business promotion. During Prime Day, Amazon Live's Small Business Showcase enabled customers to interact directly with small business owners and search for hundreds of thousands of Prime Day deals from selling partners, includes everything from fitness products to candles.
Amazon and selling partners make a great team
Amazon's partnership with third-party selling partners continues to be a win-win for small businesses and customers. Sellers help us provide customers with vast product selection and great prices, and we help sellers reach hundreds of millions of customers, grow sales, and build their brands. Selling partners account for approximately 60% of physical product sales in our store. We depend on them to provide a great customer experience, which is why we invested $18 billion last year to help fuel their success.
Success stories from small businesses on Prime Day
Volcanica Coffee - Suwanee, Georgia
Maurice Contreras, founder of Volcanica Coffee
"We sold 69% more units on the first day of Prime Day than we did on the same day the previous year. We have been able to reach thousands of new customers through Amazon that we would not have been able to reach otherwise,” said Contreras.
Finer Form - Natick, Massachusetts
Todd Bairstow, founder of Finer Form
“This year's Prime Day surpassed all of our expectations. Our products were listed on a Lighting Deal, and we saw an over 750% increase in units sold, resulting in a record sales day for us,” said Bairstow. “As a small business, Prime Day has become one of the most important events of the year, not only for its sales boost, but also for raising awareness with new customers.”
AfroPick - Salt Lake City, Utah
Gemille Walker, Shaquille Walker, and Zarrius Walker, co-founders of AfroPick
"We love our partnership with Amazon. This was our first participation in Prime Day, and we saw around a 400% increase of new customers on our storefront,” said the Walker brothers. "For a business like ours, connecting with new customers is important, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Amazon’s consistent efforts to promote us.”
Mother's Shea - Brooklyn, New York
Naa-Sakle Akuete, founder of Mother's Shea
“We are thrilled to be working with Amazon; Prime Day is a resounding success for our small business. We appreciate that Amazon is a partner who can help us succeed, and makes it simple for customers to find and purchase Mother's Shea. Amazon enables us to reach an audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach on our own.” said, Akuete.
Pawstruck - Long Beach, California
Kyle Goguen, owner of Pawstruck
"Prime Day 2021 has been fantastic for small businesses like us; it was by far one of our best sales days in the company's history. In addition, even before Prime Day, my business saw 15% sales increase on Amazon thanks to the Spend $10, get $10 promotion. The increase in sales will definitely help support operations as we prepare for the rest of the year," said Goguen.
