The Philippines saw its first-ever Online Seller Summit organized by Amazon Global Selling from 18-19 February 2021. The 2-day virtual conference sought to provide long-term educational support for Filipino SMEs who are looking to sell on Amazon, building on Amazon’s current initiatives such as the online seller education series, Seller University, and over 250 new tools and services to help sellers grow their sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide. The inaugural seller summit, joined by representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), industry partners, and local sellers, attracted more than 2,000 registration in total. The summit was organized in response to PH sellers that have been using or expressed interest in using Amazon services and stores, and provide them with support and information.
“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. DTI has been also collaborating with private sector players like Amazon to support our MSMEs to expand their business globally through online stores. Last year, we saw an increase in the number of businesses selling online, and we hope to capacitate more local businesses in 2021,” according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
The virtual summit is part of Amazon’s initiative to provide information to small and medium-sized businesses in the Philippines about how they can 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.
“At Amazon, our mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and part of fulfilling that mission is connecting worldwide businesses with our 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,” said Bernard Tay, Head of Amazon Global Selling in Southeast Asia.
Ready to Take Sellers Global
Between 2019 and 2020, Amazon has invested more than US$30B in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to foster the growth of third-party sellers. Third-party businesses account for approximately 60% of all physical product sales on Amazon. There are now more than 1.7 million small and medium businesses 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 our sellers and works 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 US$3.5B 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.
Amazon continues to build pipelines with a focus on bringing more and more SMEs, brand owners, manufacturers online, to expand and bring their business to a global level. For 2021, it plans to roll out more webinars, publish more content to make information readily and 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.
In today’s increasingly digital world, establishing an online presence opens up a multitude of possibilities for any business. And in its first-ever Online Seller Summit, Amazon showcased a readiness to support them and other interested sellers through professional training courses, one-on-one consultations, and shared global insights.