Amazon Prime Day helps out Canadian small businesses

Amazon’s Prime Day isn’t just a big online sale. It helps out small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), including a number of Canadian businesses.

In 2017, Prime Day helped thousands of SMBs to get more than $50,000 in sales. Furthermore, these businesses have created an estimated 900,000 jobs globally, according to Amazon.

“Prime Day helps SMBs reach more than 100 million paid Prime members around the world,” said Nicholas Denissen, Amazon’s vice president of Marketplace business.  This creates a lot of exposure for businesses and opens them up to markets they might not normally reach.

This is a real benefit for a number of Canadian small businesses, including Mississauga, Ontario-based Blackstone Naturals. Blackstone’s Baber Khimani told Amazon that the company takes part in Prime day every year.

“Prime Day has not only been our highest grossing sales day, but it has also resulted in a strong repeat customer base by exposing our high-quality Canadian products to customers who were not aware of our brand,” Khimani said.

Blackstone Naturals sells a variety of self-care products based on natural oil extracts.

Khimani wasn’t the only one. James Edwards from Vancouver-based Spektrum Glasses also had a great experience with Prime Day. Spektrum makes a variety of glasses for both outdoor and indoor use, including blue-light filtering glasses for use with computers.

“Prime Day is an incredible opportunity for us to reach new customers that are interested in our products. The sales increase we see on Prime Day tops any other sale our business participates in,” said Edwards.

“The visibility and success we have on Prime Day is incomparable,” said Tania Brassard of Montreal-based company Go Wood. Go Wood makes a variety of wood-based products, from phone cases to sunglasses and more.

All of these companies will be participating in Prime Day 2018 with great deals. Blackstone Naturals is offering up to 40 percent off some of its beard oil options. Spektrum is offering up to 32 percent off select computer glasses. Go Wood is also offering 20 percent off select glasses and phone cases.

Amazon Prime Day starts July 16th at 3 p.m. However, Amazon isn’t the only online retailer with big plans for that day. eBay is also starting a sale that day in a bid to get the attention of non-Prime members.

Source: Amazon