Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Kickstarter.com, a crowdfunding platform sometimes used by startups to launch new products, recently announced the creation of Kickstarter Collection, a new portal where Kickstarter-funded projects are available for purchase on Amazon Launchpad.
Amazon Launchpad is a special platform unveiled by the eCommerce giant last year to help startups launch, market and distribute their products. The dedicated store features a curated list of innovative products from startups. The new collection features products successfully launched on Kickstarter which customers can now purchase as they would any other item in Amazon’s vast inventory. It does not include products for which funds are still being raised on Kickstarter.
“At Amazon, we work hard to offer the widest possible selection of products so that customers can find anything and everything they might want to buy online. Working with Kickstarter is a great way for us to hear directly from customers what products they care about, since they truly hold the power to bring these products to life,” said Jim Adkins, Vice President, Amazon. “We created the Amazon Launchpad program a year ago to serve creators, inventors, and startups. Our goal is to enable them to reach Amazon’s hundreds of millions of customers and to overcome one of the biggest challenges any startup faces – bringing their product to market successfully.”
“Kickstarter helps independent creators find the resources, courage and community they need to bring their creative projects to life,” said Yancey Strickler, CEO and Co-Founder of Kickstarter. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Amazon Launchpad on creating a new path for those projects to be discovered, experienced and loved.”
Amazon Kickstarter Collection Helps Crowdfunded Products Get Discovered
The creation of the Amazon Kickstarter Collection is exciting news indeed for entrepreneurs and small businesses that raise funds on the platform. That’s because even after a company has raised millions of dollars and made a bunch of products, they still struggle to get the products into big stores like Walmart and BestBuy (at least in a timely fashion), and selling directly from a company website isn’t enough.
The selection on the Amazon Kickstarter Collection is pretty solid, too. It features more than 300 Kickstarter products made by startups like Piper, Zivix, Prynt and MudWatt, among others. According to Amazon, customers shopping on Kickstarter Collection can browse a variety of categories, including Electronics, Wireless Accessories, Home & Kitchen, Books, Movies & TV, and Toys & Games, as well as themes such as STEM Products, Always Be Learning, Exquisite Objects, Inventing The Future, and Public Benefit.
“The Kickstarter community is known for coming together to support big, creative ideas at the earliest stages of development. This [Kickstarter] collection brings some of the most exciting products inspired by those ideas together in one place — from albums, books, and board games, to wearables, films, robotics kits and beyond,” said Kickstarter on its company blog.
It’s worth mentioning also that Kickstarter, the public-benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, NY, has helped create 8,800 new companies (including nonprofits), 283,000 part-time jobs for creatives and 29,600 full-time jobs since it was established in 2009, according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania.
[“source-smallbiztrends”]
