Skip to footer

Amazon Launchpad carves out flashy new shelf space just for start-ups

Amazon Launchpad gives young companies new tools to pitch products and sell them online.

|
Rick Wilking/AP/File
Two freshly delivered Amazon boxes are seen on a counter in Golden, Colo.

Amazon revealed a new wing of its massive online marketplace – an improved digital bazaar built specifically for start-ups.

On Tuesday, Amazon cut the ribbon on Launchpad, which will give new companies a place to sell their products and tell their stories to the millions of customers already loyal to the retail giant. 

“We appreciate that startups have different needs than more established companies,” Amazon says in a statement. “Amazon Launchpad has been designed to meet these needs while giving [start-ups] the marketing benefits typically reserved for our more established Amazon vendors, right from day one.”

This move shows the growing influence of hot, young companies. Projects such as Kickstarter have created massive buzz behind exciting, new products, thanks in part to well produced videos about each group's mission and backstory. Launchpad borrows from this social-savvy playbook. It keeps the spotlight on these fledgling firms, while giving Amazon a cut of the action. 

Registered start-ups will get special product pages that feature larger images, room for videos, and more flexibility to show product detail. The start-ups can also tap into Amazon's established customer support, credit card processing, and shipping options.

More than 200 products already employ Launchpad pages, including Casper mattresses, Electric Objects digital art panels, and Bluesmart smart carry-on luggage, which won't even be available until September 30.

Amazon built up this initial stable of Launchpad members by partnering with more than 25 venture capital firms and crowdfunding groups. These Silicon Valley heavy hitters include Indiegogo, Y Combinator, and Andreessen Horowitz – but not Kickstarter. Start-ups that are not affiliated with Amazon's partners may still apply for access to Launchpad. 

Many software start-ups already rely on Amazon for server space. Amazon Web Services has been a go-to source for website hosting, cloud computing, and backup. Launchpad extends this relationship to start-ups that produce physical goods. It also lets Amazon throw its considerable weight around to body-check several rival services. For example, Shopify gives small companies easy tools to sell products online and Shyp handles the packaging and shipping of products around the world. In theory, Amazon Launchpad provides both services under one roof.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Amazon Launchpad carves out flashy new shelf space just for start-ups
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0728/Amazon-Launchpad-carves-out-flashy-new-shelf-space-just-for-start-ups
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe