New Amazon Platform Allows Anyone to Host an Online Giveaway Amazon Giveway hopes to make online giveaways easy – and get more hosts to buy and give away Amazon products.
By Kate Taylor
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Want to host a giveaway online? Amazon has your back.
On Tuesday, the ecommerce giant announced a new tool that allows customers to set up a giveaway with Amazon as the platform. Setting up an Amazon Giveaway is free (except, of course, that hosts have to pay for the prize and the cost of shipping it to the winner) and looks relatively simple – perfect for entrepreneurs and small businesses trying to create buzz and engage customers.
To set up a giveaway, the host selects an item sold on Amazon.com as the prize and completes a two-step set up process, entering the details and rules of the promotion. Amazon will then provide a link that the host can share with potential entrants.
Hosts can choose from two contest models. One awards prizes on a first-come, first-served basis while the other uses the "lucky number" model, in which every entrant of a set number wins (i.e., the "every 25th caller" model). As many as 50 prizes can be awarded in each giveaway, for a value of up to $5,000. When the contest closes, Amazon ships prizes directly to the winners (who must be located in the U.S.).
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Amazon says that "millions of items" are available as giveaway prizes, all shipped and sold from Amazon.com. A "Setup an Amazon Giveaway" button will now appear on items available for giveaway. Notable items that are not eligible include any digital items such as songs, movies or apps, Amazon.com gift cards, larger items that require special handling and items sold by Marketplace Sellers. That means if you were hoping to set up a giveaway with your own products that you sell via Amazon, you're out of luck.
Amazon is already hosting giveaways to celebrate the launch and give customers a taste of how the process works. The ecommerce platform is currently giving away items like a banana slicer and a speaker, with the promise that more partners will join in on the giveaway celebration soon using the #AmazonGiveaway hashtag.
Online giveaways can be a great way to generate large followings of potential customers – if the giveaway is set up properly. If you're interested in reaching new customers and rewarding existing ones, Amazon Giveaway might be worth checking out as a handy new promotional tool for your business.
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