It was only a matter of time before Amazon decided to jump full force into the startup world. They have an astounding amount of resources to offer young innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups, and today they officially made their pantheon available to all.
Amazon announced the launch of their newest program, Amazon Launchpad, that makes it easy for startups to launch, market, and distribute their products to hundreds of millions Amazon customers across the globe. The program offers a streamlined onboarding experience, custom product pages, marketing packages, and access to Amazon’s global fulfillment network.
Everything that Amazon designed for this program was specifically built to help startups launch their innovations and share their stories. The whole idea is to help alleviate the challenges associated with launching new products via Amazon’s retail expertise and infrastructure.
“As the pace of innovation continues to increase within the startup community, we want to help customers discover these unique products and learn the inspiration behind them. We also know from talking to startups that bringing a new product to market successfully can be just as challenging as building it,” says Jim Adkins, VP of Amazon. “Amazon Launchpad gives customers access to a dedicated storefront featuring a variety of innovative new products from emerging brands. For startups, we handle inventory management, order fulfillment, customer service, and more, allowing them to focus their efforts on the innovation that results in more cool products.”
Participating startups get:
- Brand Development: Custom product pages help bring products to life through visually-compelling imagery and videos. Founders can tell their story and connect with customers in a personal way with Q&A about the startup. Products from these emerging brands are featured in the new Amazon Launchpad store, which is dedicated to showcasing startups and their innovations.
- Customer Reach: Amazon’s most powerful marketing tools – including merchandised placements, personalized recommendations, and participation in the Amazon Vine customer reviews program – give products from startups added visibility. Startups also enjoy access to Amazon’s global fulfillment network, fast and free shipping with Amazon Prime, and customer service.
- Global Expansion: When startups are ready to reach customers outside the U.S., Amazon Launchpad can help them expand globally with cost-effective supply chain solutions and marketing programs in more than 10 Amazon marketplaces around the world.
To make Amazon Launchpad work, Amazon is working with more than 25 VC firms, startup accelerators, and crowdfunding platforms to bring in companies. Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and Indiegogo are just a few of the names who have funded more than 200 products currently available in the Amazon Launchpad store.
“Launchpad makes Amazon an ideal partner for the most innovative young tech companies,” says Marc Andreessen, cofounder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “It’s yet another way Amazon fosters a real ecosystem of invention and creativity.”
Personally, my favorite part of the whole Amazon Launchpad announcement is the amount of collaboration that’s taking place. Honestly, it might be the strongest mobilization of big time tech ecosystem influencers I’ve seen in a long time. There’s no doubt in my mind that Amazon will go above and beyond to support the entrepreneurs and their companies that participate in Amazon Launchpad. If you’re interested in signing up yourself, head on over to the Amazon Launchpad application page.
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