Clipboard and binder company Carstens devoted much of its business to hospitals for 130 years, but then the Affordable Care Act mandated that the healthcare industry transition to electronic records. Instead of going under, the Chicago-based business turned to Amazon.

"We had to find a way to breathe new life into the business, and get sales coming in from another direction, and Amazon offered us that," Mary Elisa Calvano, Senior Vice President of Carstens’ operations, was quoted as saying in an Amazon Selling Partners article.

According to the article, selling directly to consumers via e-commerce was a first for the woman-owned, Made in America business. Carstens has been a family-owned business since 1954 when the company’s products were marketed to hospitals.

"We really didn’t know what we were doing, but we just thought, ‘Okay, we’re going to give this a try,’" Barbara Vanderkloot, Carstens’ CEO, was quoted as saying in the Amazon article. "And now we’re doing over $1 million worth of sales on Amazon."

Calvano expressed how simple it was to become a seller on Amazon. She said Amazon provides sellers tools, customer feedback, and free training on topics such as structuring costs, optimizing time, and investments.

According to the article, Carstens now reaches new segments including parents and students buying back-to-school products and the work-at-home demographic. With these customers have come some changes to their products such as expanding the color set.