It's Amazon Prime Day Eve! Like Christmas in July...

July 11, 2017 is the third annual Amazon Prime Day. Prime Day is Amazon's annual deals event exclusively for Prime members.

The Prime Day Insider Guide mentions many perks including:

• Shop by voice
• Watch this deal
• Same-day delivery

Offers like these would be limited for our SC-based startup without the help of an e-commerce platform like Amazon.

If you happen upon our studio in Charleston's Upper King Design District, we would treat you like family– of course.

• We would give you a hands-on wallet consultation (and a high five)
• We would tell you about current markdowns and discounts
• You would walk out the door with the smile-inducing item you need that same day

As Lowcountry Local First addressed in a recent Charleston City Paper column, there is true value in supporting Mom-and-Pop retail businesses in your community and in advocating for a vibrant local economy.  

Yet, it takes a huge amount of effort to get someone to discover our studio (our pop-up shop) or even our website, but most people already know about Amazon. Amazon is the primary shopping outlet for the majority of America, with nearly 79 million households signed up for Prime memberships. 

Amazon has given our small biz the extra exposure and success needed so that we can keep innovating. 

As bargain-conscious shoppers ourselves, we turn to Amazon because it often offers us the lowest price. But this stiff competition creates an ugly behind-the-scenes bidding war that makes it hard for resellers who have less room to come down on their price. In fact, it's purchases like this that give you a wonderful opportunity to boost your local economy: Instead of scrolling on a screen, stroll down to main street and buy directly from them!

As a seller, Amazon can be a jungle– difficult to navigate, and full of predators waiting to undercut you or knock-off your designs. We have learned the hard way to diligently manage our brand and actively combat copycats.

Luckily, as designers of our own product and not simply resellers, we're not as susceptible to the "pricing innovation" race to the bottom. With Amazon as one of our own well-managed marketplaces, we can spend less effort on selling and more on doing what we love– developing innovative new products.

And overall, the challenges are worth it for our small brand. Amazon, and e-commerce in general, is a means by which we can reach shoppers and hopefully foster a relationship with new Distil Union fans far beyond the Holy City.

So, Prime mates: Pull out your Wally and celebrate an epic day of deals. And if you're reaching for a rubberband or Costanza wallet, we suggest that you start here.

If you're interested to know more, listen to the Distil Union co-founders talk about our experience selling on Amazon on the Shopify Masters podcast.