Prime Day Empowers Small and Medium-Sized Businesses on Amazon to Create New Jobs and Reinvest Locally

Sales on Prime Day and year-round empower Canadian small and medium-sized businesses to create jobs and expand in their communities

Small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon have created more than an estimated 900,000 jobs in communities around the globe

SEATTLE, July 9, 2018 /CNW/ - (NASDAQ: AMZN) – Prime Day has proven to be a huge growth opportunity for many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) selling on Amazon. Last year, on Prime Day 2017, thousands of SMBs on Amazon had more than $50,000 in sales, which allowed them to grow their businesses, create new jobs, and invest in their communities. These SMBs have created more than an estimated 900,000 jobs globally. Prime Day 2018 starts on July 16 at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET, and customers can shop deals from small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon at amazon.ca/primeday.

"Prime Day helps SMBs reach more than 100 million paid Prime members around the world, and provides an opportunity for the smallest of businesses to sell right alongside the biggest household brands," said Nicholas Denissen, VP Marketplace Business, Amazon. "In fact, Prime members ordered more than 40 million items from small and medium-sized businesses during Prime Day 2017, generating record-breaking success for those entrepreneurs."

Here's what Canadian small businesses selling on Amazon are saying about Prime Day:

• "We take part in Prime Day every year, and every year proves to be more successful than the last. 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." Baber Khimani, Blackstone Naturals from Mississauga, ON
• "Prime Day is an amazing day! Last year we sold more than 10 times what we do on an average day in less than three hours. I remember refreshing my phone last year and seeing the number skyrocketing, it was so exciting! This is our second Prime Day and we will be offering more products to our customers this year." Tao Guo, Little Bot Inc. from Toronto, ON
• "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. It's our favourite day of the year!" James Edwards, Spektrum Glasses from Vancouver, BC
• "Prime Day is a celebration of Amazon offering amazing deals to customers and driving strong sales for small businesses. As a small business, it's an incredible opportunity to easily reach tens of thousands of new customers. We highly recommend participating in Prime Day." Kevin Pasco, Nested Naturals from Vancouver, BC
• "The visibility and success we have on Prime Day is incomparable. Not only do we get a massive boost of sales, but also huge exposure to new clients. We're sure this year won't be any different." Tania Brassard, GoWood from Montreal, QB

Here is a sneak peak of a few Prime Day deals from popular and up-and-coming Canadian brands selling on Amazon:

• Up to 40% off Select Argan, Moroccan and Beard Oils from Blackstone Naturals
• Up to 32% off Select Baby Play Mats and Bibs from Little Bot Inc.
• Up to 32% off Select Computer Glasses from Spektrum Glasses
• Up to 23% off Select Vegan Capsules and Sleep Aid Tablets from Nested Naturals
• Up to 20% off Select Wood Glasses and Phone Cases from GoWood

In addition to the jobs and investment created by these small and medium-sized businesses, Amazon itself is a major job creator and investor in communities around the globe. Since 2011, Amazon has invested over $150 billion worldwide, and created over 1.7 million direct and indirect jobs around the world. In 2017 alone, Amazon directly created more than 130,000 new jobs, not including acquisitions, bringing the company's global employee base to over 560,000. To learn more about Amazon and the millions of small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon.com, visit www.amazon.com/about.

Every Day Made Better with Prime
Prime was designed to make your life better every single day. Over 100 million paid members around the world enjoy the many benefits of Prime, including shopping and entertainment. In Canada, that includes unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video, access to over one million songs on Prime Music, unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos, Twitch Prime, early access to select Lightning Deals, and more. Prime was built on the foundation of unlimited fast, free shipping and members receive Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery in Toronto and Vancouver, Prime FREE One-Day Delivery in over six cities, and unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. Start a free trial of Amazon Prime at www.amazon.ca/prime.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

SOURCE Amazon Canada