Amazon Storefronts, Shop Exclusively from U.S. Small Businesses Interview with Gene Marks on Georgia Business Radio
Today we have Gene Marks, Washington Post columnist author and financial expert joining us to talk about how supporting the U.S. small businesses online is an important concept for not just Americans and local business, but for the entire community and now it’s even easier when shopping online to buy from us small businesses with a new store called Amazon Storefronts. Making life so easy these days, thank you to Amazon. This is a store to shop exclusively from U.S. small businesses, which is very passionate and close to our hearts at the Pro Business Channel, helping support those small and medium-sized businesses.
We certainly have a business expert joining us on today’s show, Gene Marks writes daily for the Washington Post as I mentioned focusing on issues affecting the business community also writes weekly columns for Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Fox Business, The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com and if we can afford him on the Pro Business Channel. Gene this could be a regular series.
[00:01:12] Yeah, I’ll have my agent call your agent. Well as soon as we get an agent we’ll take that call. Yeah. All right. So, these columns are read by hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses owners around the country.
[00:01:25] So this is definitely in everyone’s wheelhouse for this episode. Gene has written six books on business management specifically geared towards again, those small and medium-sized companies. Here to analyze and provide details about this new digital storefront is author and as I mentioned business expert Gene Marks. Gene before we get into this, you’ve written six books.
[00:01:47] So what’s your most popular and best known or of those six books? By the way these books are sold on Amazon.com. My bestselling book is, “In God We Trust, Everyone Else Pays Cash” it’s a bunch of cash flow advice and tips, geared toward small business owners. Okay, and we may give a teaser at the end of this segment are about your next book maybe in the work.
[00:02:12] So let’s jump into this topic, tell our listeners why it’s important for shoppers to buy from us businesses, even when they’re shopping online. I mean, well Rich, you know that she talked about this on your show as well. I mean there are hundreds of thousands of small businesses in in Georgia, you know, these are businesses that that provide many jobs to the state and nationally, you know, small businesses provide more than half of the jobs.
[00:02:40] We know that small businesses are a huge part of the US economy and there are a lot of people out there that want to support small businesses and you know their government programs that do that some companies are doing that as well and. You mentioned in your introduction. I mean Amazon stepped up this week as well and they’re launching something called storefronts and you know, what the whole backstory to store funds riches that you know Amazon if you buy something from Amazon, it’s more likely that it’s coming from a small Merchant.
[00:03:12] Half of the products that sold on the site comes from a small business or a merchant and there’s more than a million small businesses in the us alone that are selling their products on Amazon. So, Amazon sort of said, you know what let’s bring some of these guys together. They’re starting off at 20,000 small businesses selling more than a million products under storefronts.
[00:03:36] You and I or anybody else that wants make sure that when we’re buying something the same as usual, but we want to make sure it’s going to a U.S. based small business. We can do that from their store front site and that’s just an amazing concept.
[00:03:57] So this is not bricks-and-mortar, right? Absolutely, correct. And you know what, you do bring up a really good point Rich. I mean yes, this is a digital storefront, this is an e-commerce site on main street.
[00:04:22] The country’s largest retailers and the smartest business owners are learning to expand their channels and growing their business and know just relying on foot traffic is a very challenging thing and by selling some of their products online and by that way I mean if you sign up as an Amazon Merchant you’re making your products available to Millions of prospective customers and if you get on Amazon Storefront site then you know, you’re being highlighted even more as a small business and that has a very positive impact on your business. So, you know, if you’re a merchant you really do need to be online today.
[00:05:15] It’s much like as you know, the broadcasting how it’s been disrupted and revolutionized and you have to jump on board with that right? So, it’s great to have listeners down and around the corner and in your neighborhood, but with the technologies that we have as broadcasters, we can now reach audiences in all 50 states and around the world.
[00:05:37] It’s much like the product at a retail store and not just selling during business hours, but opening those doors 24/7 to all 50 states and in our case, you know, we syndicate our content across 30 some-odd networks so in this day and age you really need to leverage not just technology but re-purpose whether it’s in our case broadcasting or you’re in case of retail, their products.
[00:06:11] I agree, and you know by the way it’s not an easy thing to do either. I mean, it’s not like you just flick a switch. I mean becoming an Amazon Merchant for example you’ve got to go through the requirements and you must be really have good with customer service and you have to respond to your customers and you have to be ready to fulfill products as well from potential customers around the world.
[00:06:34] So it’s not an easy thing to do but it’s absolutely worthwhile. Talk to us about how the storefront is helping small businesses compete online. So, you know on storefronts they’re offering some unique advantages for the small business owners listing there.
[00:06:53] They can be part of curated collections. So, if they do something like they sell pet supplies or stuff related to holidays then the collections will be featured on Amazon. They’re featuring a storefront of the week as well. So, you can be featured there? It’s great and plus they’re doing some deep dives where you can meet the business owner and see more profiles on the business owner.
[00:07:18] So that’s way more attention than you’d be getting if you’re on the main Amazon site, right? So, it’s different than just being a vendor or supplier, and putting your storefront in all 50 states.
[00:07:29] So any other unique features from a shopper’s perspective? Sure. I mean what’s happening for the shoppers is that Amazon is providing the shoppers the ability to connect with these small business owners. They have the convenience of Amazon, but now they’ve got the choice of buying from small businesses.
[00:07:46] So they go to storefronts and they know their money is being spent here in the US. So, is there a different entry point within the Amazon normal shopping process? I mean how do shoppers know they landed on a storefront as opposed to ordering a widget through the normal shopping.
[00:08:04] Amazon.com/storefronts is where you can go and that way, you know when you’re spending money you’re spending it with a US based small business. What’s the timetable? It has been officially rolled out just this week and the look and feel is the same and you’ll still get the same convenience that you’re getting when you shop on amazon.com.
[00:08:34] But at the same time you’ll be getting the choice now where you can be supporting U.S. small businesses. We need to have our regional director for the small business administration in our next conversation. We’ve had the US. Administrator for the entire SBA in the studio.
[00:08:52] So I’m sure they’re very dialed into this and exciting news for the SBA as well, right? No doubt. I mean the SBA supports anything like this to highlight and raise awareness and support small businesses in the country. So once again, how would folks find out more information about this? Sure, if they go to amazon.com/storefronts, that’s where they can go to make sure they’re buying the same products that you and I were buying, but we’re buying it from a U.S. based small business.
[00:09:22] Thank you again for joining Rich Casanova and our guests on the pro-business channel use the social media links here to share today’s show and stay tuned for the next episode of Georgia Business Radio.
Connect with Gene Marks on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genemarks
Find out more about Amazon Storefronts at: www.Amazon.com/storefronts
Georgia Business Radio Interviewing industry and thought leaders with compelling stories. Relevant content on current business trends live from the Pro Business Channel studios in Atlanta. In addition to the live broadcast, GBR content is in distribution across multiple syndicated platforms with more than 500,000 downloads.
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Rich Casanova began his broadcasting career in California’s central valley at KSKS-FM. While in California he also ran a successful entertainment company whose staff and crew entertained over 100,000 people. After moving to Atlanta and selling his entertainment company, Casanova ventured into publishing as the Publisher and Franchise Owner of Coffee News, headquartered in Bangor, ME.
Later became the Founder and CCO, Chief Connection Officer, of an online platform where local business professionals register to receive a free list of the top 100 networking events in metro Atlanta.
With a name like Casanova and his gregarious personality, Rich was a natural as a music radio DJ. “I got the radio bug early in my career and often thought how great it would be if there was an opportunity to participate in a talk radio format with a pro-business perspective interviewing thought leaders from the local business community.” Thus was born the Pro Business Channel where Rich is the CoFounder and Chief Visionary Officer.
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