Global e-commerce platform Amazon held recently the first online seller summit in the country, with the hopes of providing long-term support to Filipino Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The 2-day summit also looked at how these SMEs can sell through Amazon’s platform and eventually help sellers grow their sales in Amazon stores worldwide by providing them with necessary tools and services.
Among guests in attendance during the first-ever summit were representatives from the national government, particularly the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), industry partners, and local sellers, with more than 2,000 registered summit attendees.
“In the Philippines, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) serve as our economy’s backbone, and we firmly believe that they should be enabled to pivot digitally so that they can become more innovative and competitive. That’s why we’ve been offering e-commerce programs to support the digitalization of our MSMEs, which aim to engender business resiliency in our entrepreneurs,” says DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez during the event.
He added that DTI continues to collaborate with private sector players like Amazon to support MSMEs and help them expand their business globally through online stores.
Lopez noted that last year, more businesses went selling via online, “and we hope to capacitate more local businesses in 2021,” Lopez continued.
Meanwhile, Bernard Tay, Head of Amazon Global Selling in Southeast Asia, said Amazon’s mission is to be the world’s most customer-centric company, and part of fulfilling that mission is connecting worldwide businesses with their global customers.
“This means low prices, outstanding service, and the widest possible selection. And that’s why we are willing to make our shelf-space available in our online stores to empower selling partners. Now more than ever, we’re seeing more and more people from all over the world buy and sell on the internet. And that’s why we’re encouraging local sellers to think global and explore online opportunities,” Tay said in a statement sent to Frontpageph.com.
By providing information to MSMEs in the country, Amazon teaches them to make their products available across Amazon’s online stores worldwide. Through Amazon online stores, sellers can directly reach over 300 million active customer accounts, including 150 million Prime customers worldwide.
Between 2019 and 2020, Amazon has invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to foster the growth of third-party sellers. Third-party businesses account for approximately 60 percent of all physical product sales on Amazon. There are now more than 1.7 million SMEs around the world selling in Amazon online stores worldwide. In the past year, Amazon has launched over 250 new tools and services to help sellers grow their sales in Amazon’s stores. Specific to the case of COVID, Amazon understands the impact COVID-19 had on many of its sellers and that’s why Amazon continues to work hard to help them.
Amazon has 20 stores worldwide, and has a highly advanced fulfillment network. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) allows sellers to store their products in Amazon’s warehouses worldwide where the products are picked up, packed and shipped to buyers. FBA can help make products more visible to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers worldwide and provides fast shipping as well as customer service. FBA also allows products listed to be eligible for Amazon Prime, which has over 150 million Prime members worldwide. In 2020 Prime Day, sellers saw record-breaking sales, surpassing $3.5 billion in total.
Another resource sellers can utilize is the Seller Forum, a place to discuss emerging trends and seek first-hand advice from fellow business owners on Amazon. Community members share insights on how to run a successful business, avoid common pain points, and maximize the available services and programs. Sellers can also join the Sell on Amazon SEA Facebook page to connect with the community of sellers from the region.
For 2021, it plans to roll out more webinars, publish more content to make information readily accessible to sellers who want to learn and find out more about selling on Amazon. Also, it will be rolling out supporting programs to connect and bring together Amazon sellers, with the aim of building a learning community where experienced sellers can share their Amazon journeys, and success stories.