Margaret Rice, owner of Your Therapy Source, said that Amazon enables rural entrepreneurs to expand their reach and serve customers nationwide. This statement was made on Amazon’s website.
“Selling with Amazon, for me and my small business, has really opened up a lot of opportunities,” said Rice. “It’s reaching an audience that I would never be able to reach where I live. I live in a rural area. By using Amazon’s tools and shipping capabilities, we’re able to reach customers all over the US.”
Amazon has increased its support for rural entrepreneurs by investing in faster delivery infrastructure, expanding fulfillment networks, and offering tools like Fulfillment by Amazon. These initiatives aim to help small businesses in remote areas sell nationwide, reducing geographic barriers and providing rural sellers access to millions of customers they could not reach through local channels alone. This information is according to Amazon’s 2024 Small Business Empowerment Report.
According to the report, rural entrepreneurs selling on Amazon experienced sales growth of more than 30% year over year in 2024. This highlights the strong momentum of small-town businesses leveraging Amazon’s logistics and marketplace tools. Many sellers reported that joining Amazon gave them national reach that was not possible through their rural locations.
Amazon also reported that independent sellers in rural areas achieved more than 60% year-over-year sales growth in 2023, significantly outpacing the modest growth of local-only sales channels. This demonstrates how Amazon’s national platform enables rural entrepreneurs to accelerate reach and revenue beyond what their local communities can provide.
Rice founded Your Therapy Source in Schaghticoke, New York, in 2007 after working as a classroom teacher. Since joining Amazon in 2020, she explained that the platform allowed her to reach customers across the United States, something not possible from her rural base.
Your Therapy Source provides therapy resources such as worksheets, activity ideas, and forms for pediatric, occupational, physical, and school-based therapists. Its mission is to reduce workload for therapists by offering ready-to-use materials. Through Amazon, the business has expanded from a rural base in New York to reach a nationwide customer base.
