Anna and Rex Childers watched their Mississippi-based business surge in sales this week after Amazon.com featured one of the couples’ products, a mug, on its Mother’s Day gifts page. Anna told the Jackson Free Press on Friday that they usually sell about 75 of those mugs weekly, but this past week, those sales boomed to around 75 a day.
They run Apple Farm Creations, a business in D’Iberville that began as a hobby. About three-quarters of their sales, Anna said, come through their Amazon store.
The Childers are among a number of Mississippi business owners who have seen growth in recent years propelled by the online mega-retailer’s platform. In fact, Amazon reported in a May 1 press statement, Mississippi retailers boasted the fastest year-over-year growth among Amazon retailers.
Mississippi ‘Fastest Growing State’ for Small Business on Amazon
State leaders seized on the news but misstated the case. Gov. Phil Bryant tweeted thanks to Amazon on Tuesday for “recognizing Mississippi as the #1 state in the nation for the growth of small & medium businesses.”
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves also used the opportunity to take a not-so-thinly-veiled shot at Attorney General Jim Hood, one of his Democratic opponents in the race for governor. In his campaign, Hood frequently criticizes GOP leadership.
“This election, you’ll see some politicians complain endlessly about our state,” Reeves tweeted Thursday night. “They won’t share success stories that go against their liberal narrative like this one: Amazon ranked conservative Mississippi as the BEST state in the country for growing small businesses. Great news!”
Like Bryant’s tweet, Reeves’ Facebook posts seems to suggest that Amazon ranked Mississippi No. 1 in growth among all small and medium-size businesses. That is misleading. Andrea Ruge, an Amazon representative, confirmed to the Jackson Free Press on Thursday that the company’s study refers only to Mississippi businesses that sell on Amazon’s online platform, and does not include their local, non-Amazon.com sales.
“It depends on how you read it,” State Economist Darrin Webb told the Jackson Free Press on Thursday. “They didn’t necessarily rank them as the best state in the country for growing small businesses. They said it was the fastest growing in terms of sales.”
But, he said, Amazon’s announcement is still good news.
“Amazon saw strong growth from Mississippi retailers, so that’s good for Mississippi retailers,” he said. “It is a positive thing. We live in a fairly rural state and apparently there are some folks here in the state who have found a way to sell their product to a national or international market, so that is a good thing.”
