Amazon Introduces New Way to Shop Black-Owned Businesses
In honor of Black Business Month and the first-year anniversary of Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator, Amazon has revealed it is testing a new Black-Owned Business badge. The badge aims to help Black-owned small businesses reach more customers and to make it easier for customers to discover, shop and support Black-owned businesses selling in Amazon’s store. The Black-Owned Business badge will indicate to customers when the current featured offer for a product is sold by a Black-owned business. During this test, the Black-Owned Business badge will be found on a subset of eligible product offer detail pages and within Search in Amazon’s U.S. store.
Customers can discover, shop, and support Black-owned businesses throughout Black Business Month and all year long.
“As part of Amazon’s commitment to supporting and empowering the Black community, we are testing a new badge to make it even easier for customers to identify and shop products that come from Black-owned businesses,” said Dharmesh Mehta, VP of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. “We are eager to learn how the badge best helps customers discover Black-owned businesses and how it can help Black entrepreneurs succeed and grow in Amazon’s store.”
In 2021, Amazon committed $150 million over four years to empower Black entrepreneurs through the launch of the Black Business Accelerator. Over the last year, the accelerator program has provided access to financial assistance, strategic business education and coaching, and marketing and advertising support to help Black business owners grow their businesses and maximize the opportunities of selling in Amazon’s store.
"Participating in Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator not only helped me grow my online business, but I also learned how many of Amazon’s Seller Central resources I had been underutilizing,” said Arsha Jones, founder and CEO of Capital City Co., known for its sticky, sweet Mambo Sauce. “Analyzing data has allowed me to view my business from a different perspective and create a plan for growth beyond our current footprint."
For second quarter ended June 30, Amazon saw its net sales increase 7% to $121.2 billion over the second quarter of 2021, but also saw a net loss of $2 billion versus the same time period last year. The company’s operating cash flow decreased 40% to $35.6 billion for the 12 months prior to June 30, compared with last year's $59.3 billion for same time period, while free cash flow decreased to an outflow of $23.5 billion.
Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
