How Amazon and the Detroit Pistons joined forces to help area small businesses through the SHOP313 program

Miranda Moy opened in Detroit Moy Hair Essentials in 2018 will develop a completely natural hair care line.

The Detroit Pistons SHOP313 program was developed to help entrepreneurs like Moy.

Moy joined more than 100 pre-selected vendors, entrepreneurs and small business owners at the Detroit Pistons Performance Center earlier this week for the Small Business Summit presented by Amazon.

The goal of the summit was to support area small business owners like Moy, whose store is located in northwest Detroit near the Rosedale Park Historic District. Last year, Moy was the recipient of a grant from the SHOP313 program.

“The Pistons really help,” Moy said. Being able to learn during the panel discussions about how to grow your business and get it on Amazon has been very helpful. Knowing that they will invite you to events will only help your visibility and grow your business.

The day-long Small Business Month event featured workshops, panel discussions and questions from Pistons marketing professionals and Amazon’s business development team.

Howard Wright, Amazon’s vice president and global head of startups, said the goal of the summit was to share sales best practices and ways to support small businesses through brand marketing.

It’s flexibility, dedication, preparation and teamwork, said Wright, who played several seasons in the NBA. Here at AWS (Amazon), we really want to focus on the same core metrics, enabling our partners in the startup community, and we do it with compassion and a little coercion every single morning.

The Pistons created the SHOP313 program in 2021 to promote local entrepreneurs and provide participating businesses with educational seminars, resources, grant opportunities and networking events.

Last year, The NBA recognized the Pistons program more than 800 small businesses applied for the SHOP313 program. During the 2021-22 season, the program helped 82 small businesses with access to Little Caesars Arena during games, community events and digital assistance. SHOP313 proved beneficial for Detroit companies Beas Squeeze, a lemonade company, and K. Walker Collective, an apparel brand that partnered with the Pistons’ G League team, Motor City Cruise, to design their uniforms.

The SHOP313 program puts our business in front of people who may not have seen us before, Good Cakes and Bakes owner April Anderson told Pistons.com last fall. The initiative has helped because they go outside the program to utilize us for other purposes. events too.

According to Governor Whitmers of Michigan officeMichigan was home to over 900,000 small businesses in 2022.

“I think small business really is the ethos of Detroit,” Pistons director of corporate partnerships Sarra Barnes said. If you just look at the numbers of small businesses, what is their economic impact and cultural impact on our community; it’s very important to take our platform and use the game to connect people through basketball and take that platform for good.

After the panel and fireside discussion, the afternoon ended with a professional marketing shoot, networking and happy hour. “Throughout the season we have businesses that we interact with on game days, but this is our inaugural off-season, post-season event that’s a really great way to kick off the rest of the summer,” Barnes said. We strive to integrate small businesses wherever we can.