Amazon first opened its virtual shelves to small businesses nearly two decades ago, and today millions of small and medium-sized businesses from around the world sell on Amazon. Half of all items purchased on Amazon come from these businesses.

Amazon helps small and medium-sized businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers around the world, giving the smallest of businesses the opportunity to compete next to the biggest household brands. These businesses are a vital part of Amazon’s continued growth, and we see that consumers love buying from small businesses on Amazon. Our guiding star has always been our obsession with customers—whether that’s consumers or the millions of businesses that sell on Amazon—and we’re inventing for both shoppers and entrepreneurs every day. Together, Amazon and millions of small businesses now offer hundreds of millions of unique products and competitive prices to consumers around the world.

Sarah Bak Studio
Sarah Bak, of Sarah Bak Pottery.
Photo by JORDAN STEAD / Amazon

We recently took a deeper look at how Amazon is impacting small businesses, and the results are exciting to see. Among the highlights: More than a million US-based small and medium-sized businesses are selling on Amazon; Amazon estimates that small and medium-sized businesses selling om Amazon have created more than 900,000 jobs worldwide; More than 20,000 small and medium-sized businesses worldwide on Amazon surpassed $1 million in sales in 2017.

Special thanks to the millions of small and medium-sized businesses from around the world that have chosen to grow their business on Amazon.

Read more about how Amazon and small businesses are working together.

-Jeff Wilke, CEO, Amazon Worldwide Consumer