i3 - November/December 2018 - 49

By Caitlin Cline

Policy

P O L I CY I N ACT I O N

The Business of Selling Services Online

Ikon Images/Getty Images

isruptive companies such as Airbnb and Amazon are helping
individuals sell their services online - whether its renting a
basement room, giving a cooking lesson or selling handmade goods. These companies allow anyone with a passion to
become an entrepreneur.
This is true of Amazon seller
Angelica
Elena Castaneda, founder
Melendez
and CEO of Bling Jewelry,
who started her business
with a credit card and an
Amazon account. After ten
years in business, Bling
Jewelry employs 40 people
and sells to customers in
almost a dozen countries. A
share of her success is due to
the opportunities Amazon
provides small businesses.
"Amazon gives you every
possible tool you can think of
to manage your business and
make it successful," says Castaneda. She attributes some
of her success to Amazon
Prime Day, where she has
been able to achieve growth
and hire more employees.
"Sales generated on Prime
Day have helped us expand
our team and move into a
larger office space in New
Jersey. In fact, since moving
to our new space, we have
already hired 10 new
employees," adds
Castaneda.
In general, small
Elena
business owners view
Castaneda
online retailing as a
way to boost sales.
The 21st-century new economy
According to a 2018 Insureon
and Manta poll, over twohas changed how businesses
thirds (68 percent) of small
operate, shifting away from
businesses say Amazon's mar"us versus them" to helping
ketplace has a positive
individuals thrive.
impact on businesses sales.
Another e-commerce
C TA . t e c h / i 3

experience helping boost
small business activity -
while assisting individuals
to make extra income -
is hospitality service
Airbnb. As more travelers want to experience cities like
residents do and not as
tourists, the short-term
rental platform has helped
increase tourism to more
diverse neighborhoods, generating greater support for
local businesses.
For example, Airbnb reports
it hosted 236,000 guests in
Washington, DC in 2016, and
guests spent $160 million in
local businesses. District resident Angelica Melendez is one
of those hosts, and helped
drive foot traffic to her neighborhood's shops, as she used
the platform to help pay for
her mortgage while she
attended graduate school. She
often opens her home to
interns looking to offset the
high cost of living in the
nation's capital.
"I'm providing a different
kind of service to make a job
accessible," says Melendez. She
hopes visitors - especially
young people - view the shortterm rental platform as more
than just a tourism app.
The 21st-century new economy has changed how businesses operate, shifting away
from "us versus them" to helping individuals thrive. To survive in this new economy,
companies must invest in their
users - whether it be Amazon
sellers or Airbnb hosts -
because their success is critical
to a company's standing.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

https://www.cta.tech/

i3 - November/December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - November/December 2018