“Tracey Richardson, inspired by her dad and her Aunt Lillie, built a business making spices and sauces, and they started with a small store. It was inspired by the Gullah culture, which is kind of the people and culture in the regional areas of South Carolina and Georgia and the nearby Sea Islands. It started in a small store and then started providing their products to small markets and groceries. But then during the pandemic—and this happened a lot during the pandemic—it just changed the way we all thought about our lives and we all thought about our work, and not to mention the fact that for about nine months to a year, everything was shut down, and so Lillie’s went all in on selling in the marketplace and since that time, their sales have increased 156%. Selling more broadly on Amazon—instead of having to find a way to somehow be able to spend a ginormous amount of money on advertising and then hoping you could attract them to your store or your storefront—they get to use Amazon as their marketing tool, and their focus groups, and national distribution. And I think it’s really meaningfully changed what that business has become and what it has a chance to become over time. And that’s one of many stories, and examples, that exist here.”
CEO Andy Jassy says Amazon’s partnership with independent sellers is the most ‘substantial collaboration in the history of retail’
