BC Business
The event will take place this Saturday at Jack Poole Plaza from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
When you hear the name Amazon, “small business” probably doesn’t come to mind.
But the American retail giant’s upcoming pop-up event on June 18 is all about showcasing products from 50 small businesses in Vancouver that sell through Amazon’s e-commerce site. If you visit Jack Poole Plaza between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. this Saturday, you can meet 17 of those brand owners in person and purchase products through the Amazon app by scanning QR codes.
“We have everything from jewelry to food to fashion to cool things you didn’t even know that you needed,” says Andrew Gouveia, PR manager for Amazon Canada. Owners of brands like Baby Bibi (which makes baby books), Buddha Board (which makes zen drawing boards) and Custom Car Posters (which makes self-explanatory artwork) will be at the marketplace to meet attendees, although products from popular brands like 49th Parallel Coffee, The Cocktail Box and Vitruvi will also be available for purchase. One brand that Gouveia seemed particularly excited about is Gift-a-Green, which makes greeting cards with microgreens: “So you can give someone a happy birthday card, but it’s actually a plant.”
When asked about the reason behind focusing on small businesses, Gouveia maintains that more than half of the sales on Amazon come from third-party sellers. “Small businesses are a huge portion of our business,” he says. “And through the pandemic, I think everyone has been wanting to shop more locally.”
The whole point of the market—which is free to attend—is to make sure people know that they can shop locally on Amazon: “We want people to know that there are great businesses that are essentially in their backyard.”