Amazon launches new online store for small businesses

The company launched Monday "Amazon Storefronts", an online store offering only products from US companies of medium size. The store offers an organized collection of products and offers from around 20,000 companies from 50 US states. Located on Amazon's homepage and at www.amazon.com/storefronts, the online store offers more than 25 product categories, such as Back to School, Halloween and Home.

To promote this new site, Amazon will be launching its first-ever national TV commercial featuring real Amazon vendors as part of a national advertising campaign. The company has already put online advertising a minute. Amazon Storefronts will also publish "Storefront of the Week" video interviews with business owners, as well as corporate profile stories titled "Meet the Business Owner." The website is currently showing a video on the soap company The Little Flower Soap Co., based in Michigan, and a profile of Ayah Bdeir, founder of the littleBits coding company.

Amazon sells products from over a million medium sized businesses. It is unclear whether the company will allow companies with which it is a partner to apply to appear on Amazon Storefront, or if Amazon will make the selections independently. Amazon did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.