How Amazon is supporting small businesses across Prime Day 2021

Our annual Prime Day event for 2021 will be held across the 21^st and 22^nd June, offering Prime customers over two million deals worldwide across every category. More than a million of these deals come from independent selling partners, many of whom are small and medium-sized businesses.

This Prime Day, and for the remainder of 2021, Amazon has pledged to spend more than $100 million globally on promotional activities to encourage customers to shop small. In the run-up to the two-day event (until 20^th June), Prime customers will receive £10 credit to spend on Prime Day for every £10 they spend with a small business.

In addition to the usual promotions, from now until Prime Day, for Prime customers and first-time users of our charity initiative AmazonSmile, we will donate an enhanced five per cent donation to your chosen charity – ten times the regular donation.

To find out more about how small businesses in the UK will benefit from Prime Day, we spoke to Amazon sellers including Superfoodio, Soundbops, PONO London, Masumi Headwear and strp'd.

Husband and wife team Jagir and Nirali Mankodi were inspired to launch their vegan chocolate brand Superfoodio in 2016 after a backpacking adventure around South America.

They had quit their jobs to go backpacking for six months. Being on a plant-based diet they thought they'd struggle to find suitable food to fuel their many adventures. However, by immersing themselves into the local culture, Jagir and Nirali discovered how the local people lived off the earth in a sustainable manner. While in Bolivia, they lived with farmers and experienced first-hand how quinoa is grown and harvested.

Following that trip, they wanted to share their learnings and launch a business selling delicious and nutritious snacks – and so Superfoodio was born. The products were a hit, and at one of their first events were recognised by tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic who gave his seal of approval and took home a few bags full of Superfoodio treats!

Superfoodio launched their vegan peanut butter chocolates on Amazon not long after and saw huge growth. “Selling on Amazon simplified the buying and selling experience,” explains Nirali. “It put our products in front of millions of new customers, and particularly during the past year made up for the lack of high street sales.”

“Amazon's Prime Day is a very exciting calendar event for Prime customers and sellers alike,” adds Jagir. “Shoppers love a good deal, so for small businesses like Superfoodio, Prime Day is the perfect opportunity to get our brand in front of customers and our delicious chocolate bars into their hands. It's a win-win for everyone!”

Strp’d

Launched in 2020 by entrepreneur Ayesha Grover, strp’d (pronounced stripped) is an innovative vegan brand selling healthy products made from tigernuts.

Ayesha discovered the relatively unheard-of superfood while travelling in Nigeria, where the ingredient has been consumed for generations. Tigernuts, which are actually more akin to a sweet potato than a nut, have been used to make dairy, nut and gluten-free alternatives to milk and flour and have a naturally sweet flavour.

As she fell in love with the ingredient, Ayesha decided to launch her own range of tigernut products and started selling on Amazon. Ayesha had originally planned an April 2020 launch of a range of on-the-go tigernut milk drinks, ideal for commuters. However, when the pandemic hit demand for on-the-go products, she decided to pause production on the drinks for a later date.

Like so many others, Ayesha took up baking during the pandemic so experimented with tigernuts as a healthier, gluten and nut-free flour alternative and in August of last year launched these as the debut product for Strp’d.

Despite only launching last year, Ayesha has already seen huge successes with her products thanks in part to the support she received from Amazon’s Launchpad programme and Amazon Small Business Accelerator. “The Accelerator was a fantastic way to ask questions to industry experts and learn from people that have set up successful businesses.”

Launched on Amazon at the end of 2020, Glasgow-based Soundbops creates unique instruments which introduce children to playing music from a young age.

Unlike small versions of traditional instruments, the Soundbops instrument has been designed to be easy for children to play and master – using bright blocks and colourful ‘bops’, children can easily understand musical notes and build up technical skills in a fun and experimental way.

“Music is such an important part of many people’s lives, and studies show that the ability to play an instrument can improve a child’s confidence, as well as other areas of their learning and development,” explains founder Michael Tougher.

“After graduating from my Product Design degree at university, I designed the first Soundbops instrument to be an accessible option for children ages three and up – helping them experiment and understand music from a younger age,” he says.

“We launched on Amazon as a simpler way to reach and engage with new customers on a trusted platform,” says Michael. “We also joined the Launchpad programme, which has been really useful in helping us find our footing and grow with extra support.”

“As a small business, Prime Day allows us to reach new customers that may have never seen Soundbops before. Prime provides customers extra reassurance and convenience that is crucial for a new growing brand like Soundbops.” Michael adds: “Most of all, selling on Amazon and Prime Day promotions help us reach more children and enable them to start their journey into a life of music.”

Prime Day is an exciting time for new businesses just finding their footing, and this is certainly the case for Mariana Santos, founder of PONO London – a start-up offering a more sustainable and hygienic options for make-up removal.

While completing her PhD in Biochemical Engineering in which she is researching ways to make medicine more sustainable, Mariana decided to look at ways she could change her lifestyle to be more environmentally conscious.

Mariana found that make-up removal was one particularly wasteful area of daily life. “Many make-up removal products are single-use, full of chemicals and not sustainable,” she explains. “While multi-use products are available, if not carefully maintained they can be a breeding ground for bacteria.”

Mariana set out to develop a new sustainable make-up removal cloth from a material that prevents bacteria growth, and, after much product development, PONO London launched on Amazon at the start of 2021. “Amazon makes everything super easy meaning I can run the business while completing my PhD,” says Mariana.

“As a small business getting started, I’m excited about Prime Day as an amazing opportunity to build awareness around my brand. The focus on small businesses is a great way to get customers to search for new products from small brands, and I hope it will build momentum for my products.”

Manchester-based entrepreneur Ali Nowroozi is the founder of Masumi, creating stylish, comfortable and functional headwear for people experiencing hair loss due to chemotherapy or alopecia.

Ali, a former manager of wig distribution centres in the UK, noticed some customers were dissatisfied with wigs as a practical solution to hair loss. They would get too hot or itchy, could be difficult to maintain and wear and were visually dull.

He launched Masumi in 2015 and, thanks in part to selling on Amazon, the business grew rapidly. Since then, Masumi has become a key supplier for NHS chemotherapy facilities, selected partner salons, and for young people through a partnership with the Teenage Cancer Trust, where Masumi provides an exclusive range specifically designed for young people. “We wanted to give people confidence and to make people smile at possibly the most difficult time in their lives,” says Ali.

Amazon has played a big role in the rapid growth of Masumi: “We love the services offered by Amazon, our products arrive safe and fast, sometimes on the same day. My customers and I have peace of mind that we will receive great service.”

“I am so pleased to see Amazon continue to support small businesses and putting them at the forefront of Prime Day this year. This particularly means so much to our business after what has been a particularly difficult year for everyone.”

Find out more about Prime Day, 21^st and 22^nd June