Amazon has a new initiative targeting black businesses – the Black Business Accelerator Program
They are committing $150 million to Black-Owned businesses as a way to help Black business owners bring their products to the masses through Amazon.com. The program is designed to be more than just providing a platform for product exposure, but also a means to help business owners to build equity and growth.
Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator Program aims to build sustainable equity and growth for Black-owned businesses by enabling their success as sellers in its online store. In partnership with non-profit organizations with demonstrated success in supporting Black-owned businesses, the BBA will provide financial assistance, business education and mentorship, and marketing and promotion of their brands and products as third-party sellers on Amazon.com.
Amazon has form strategic partnerships with the Minority Business Development Agency and the U.S. Black Chambers Inc. These organizations will support BBA by leading community engagement and helping provide participants with mentorship, business development, training, and educational resources to lead them to success. Thanks to their long-term experience in supporting Black businesses, they will be able to provide counsel to Amazon on developing BBA further, including expanding it to other underrepresented groups.
N’DIGO spoke with Brandi Neloms, Amazon manager about the new program.
N’DIGO: Tell me about this new initiative.
Brandi Neloms: We are interested in building and launching Black businesses. The program is designed for retail businesses, and we are positioning them to sell on Amazon. The goal is to make them successful sellers on Amazon.
What type of businesses are you interested in?
We are interested across all categories. We are interested in basic products, art, toys, food and beverage for example. It’s an open store. We want companies to be successful on Amazon, which hosts an everything store. There are no limits.
How did this program come about?
The idea for BBA came from an Amazon employee who is a member of Amazon’s Black Employee Network. Working with the sellers and seeing the success they were having, she could not help but think about her parents, who had started a number of businesses over the years. She started to think of how she could harness the store’s power to help Black businesses. She wrote a document and started to socialize it internally and it really gained momentum from there.
The goal was intentional. We are driving wealth and want to close the gap for Black business owners who have historically had less access to capital to start and grow their businesses. This became a collective decision to address this notion Amazon-wide. We want to bridge the gap.
What are the basics of the program?
The benefits of Amazon’s Black Business Accelerator fall into three primary categories. Financial support that includes credits and services needed to really build your business and accelerate growth. We’re also providing advertising credits to help you promote your products. And we’re providing free imaging services for up to 50 of your products to make sure that your photos look great and they’re appealing to customers.
How will you select the businesses?
There are two criteria. First that you are a professional Amazon seller and a certified Black-owned business. The benefits of this program are provided at no cost to the participants.
The second requirement for participating businesses is to be certified Black-owned by one of four third-party certifying bodies: the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SAM.gov. or SupplierGATEWAY. Sellers are expected to determine their own eligibility requirements for certification and obtain the appropriate supporting documentation depending on the certification.
How long will the program exist?
Amazon’s BBA will invest $150 million over four years, including financial assistance and grants to help Black business owners kick off their activity. Financial support comes in the form of Amazon credits and services valued at $3,900, including free product imaging services and advertising credits.
Amazon will also offer an initial round of $10,000 cash grants in partnership with Hello Alice, an organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses.
But money alone is never enough to build and sustain a business, especially if you are new to the process. Business education and mentorship are paramount, which is why the program offers both free for at least a year. Once businesses are accepted into the program, they basically have access to over 300 million customers overnight that is exhilarating and highly daunting. Connecting with a dedicated network of business mentors, including Amazon experts and small business thought leaders, becomes critical in establishing the business and accelerating business growth.
