Amazon offers £10,000 prize for Northampton students who get small businesses online

Amazon is asking for students to help grow small businesses with a chance to win a 10,000 cash prize.

The Amazon Campus Challenge is a competition running in the UK, offering students with an interest in business the opportunity to work with real companies and start-ups to help them grow their business on Amazon and reach customers around the world.

Teams of between two and five students are tasked with approaching a company of their choice to set up an account to sell on Amazon and work with them to help grow their business.

The competition is open to students aged 18 and over who are studying for an apprenticeship, bachelors or master’s degree during the 19/20 academic year - with a grand prize of £10,000.

The competition is open for registrations now at the Amazon Campus Challenge website and begins in January 2020.

Amazon's Northampton delivery station manager Barry Morton said: "Unearthing and inspiring the next generation of e-commerce superstars is something we’re hugely passionate about, and it’s this passion that led to the creation of the Amazon Campus Challenge.

“The competition offers a great opportunity for students to test and develop their business skills in a real-life environment and I hope many students, teachers and lecturers in Northampton will sign up and get involved.”

To be successful, teams will need to hone their "e-commerce" skills by learning how to set up a real-life business on Amazon, how to market that company’s products to customers and how to reach a global audience.

The competition runs until June 2020, when a panel of UK business leaders will choose the winning teams.

Up to £28,000 in prize money is up for grabs, with the first place team set to win £10,000. The winning teams may be offered the opportunity to interview for a job at Amazon UK, subject to business requirements.

From September 2019 to June 2020, student teams will be tasked with approaching and supporting a company of their choice that has not yet set up an account to sell on Amazon. Once agreed, the students will work with the businesses to help them grow and succeed on Amazon.