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Take a stroll down New York City's Seventh Avenue – or any of the main streets of the small American town – and you'll see that the situation is much different from what it was 40 years ago, maybe 20 years old.
At the time, there were many shops selling shoes, clothes, sports equipment and books. Today … not so much. The shopping centers are empty, the chains of famous brands have been closed and the storefronts are more or less occupied by companies "experience" – restaurants, cafes, bars, sports venues or nail salons. Where is the retail business? Was it destroyed? And did Amazon cause all this?
Yes, Amazon has caused a lot. In fact, the giant of e-commerce has changed forever. But not all news is bad, especially for small businesses.
Steve Mnuchin does not feel like that. In an interview with CNBC this week, the Treasury Secretary (and former member of the Sears board of directors) said that Amazon had "destroyed the retail sector across the United States ". He also stated that "there is no doubt that they have limited competition. People had these concerns about Walmart, but Walmart developed a business in which small businesses could continue to compete with them. "
Mnuchin knows much more than me. I will never talk to him about tax policy, the federal debt ceiling, or anything related to the finances of the US government. But, with all due respect, small businesses are my domain, not his. And when it comes to small businesses, I feel comfortable saying this: Amazon does not hurt small businesses. It's actually just the opposite.
I am not an employee of Amazon and, although my company has done some marketing work for the company in the last few years, I am not an Amazon merchant or partner. I just know a lot about small businesses because I direct one and write about them. And for small businesses, Amazon has done a lot more good than bad.
The company has created businesses, side projects, development and content creation opportunities for more than 1.9 million small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide, who have created more than 1.6 million businesses worldwide. jobs. The company has created a special site for small businesses for people who want to become entrepreneurs and help them become partners and traders. More than half of the items sold on their site are sold by a small or medium-sized business. Many other consultants, technology companies, logistics companies, warehouse owners and other small businesses have made their lives on the backs of Amazon.
You do not see these people on Main Street anymore, but believe me, they are still there … and en mbade. They sell to customers they would never have dreamed of, buying products from distant suppliers in the comfort of their homes or in spaces that are much cheaper than rent on Seventh Avenue.
"Amazon is the first partner that offers small businesses a legitimate way to compete with large retailers. That's why they are scared and they sound the alarm that they are "killing the retail business," said Jerry Kozak, owner of Ann Arbor. Company t-shirt and an Amazon merchant, I said. "Amazon is changing the retail business by offering more and more merchant products with greater convenience – and people are voting with their wallets."
Kozak, which employs 75 people for $ 20 million a year, is not alone in supporting the online platform. Many other business owners I know agree with him.
And by the way, Amazon is not the only game in town. E-commerce applications that allow small businesses to sell from their own websites such as Shopify, BigCommerce and Magento have exploded in popularity in recent years. Etsy, eBay and other online markets have attracted countless small businesses for sale. The Chinese giant Alibaba has announced this week new tools especially for small businesses that are part of its growth strategy in the US market. Small businesses have a lot of choices to sell their products other than Amazon.
And sell they do. Just for the first day of Amazon, small and medium-sized businesses sold more than $ 2 billion worth of products, up 33 percent from last year. Other platforms have also helped small businesses generate billions of dollars in revenue.
"What Amazon has actually done is to democratize the retail business and level the playing field so that independent brands and small businesses can enter the market and thrive," said Kristin Rae, a merchant and retailer. Amazon who owns Inspire Travel Luggage. "Really, I could not be a business without Amazon."
Yes, the retail business has undergone a huge change, and Amazon has played a big role. But the smart entrepreneurs I know – like Kozak and Rae – understand something that some slow-moving retailers, disconnected politicians and even a treasury secretary have not done: it's in 2019 and not in 1979. They are profitable and good for them.
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