Amazon Stats: Growth, sales, and more

Find out how Amazon stores can unlock new opportunities for your business with support for distribution, sales channels, product listings, and other ways to boost your brand’s potential. We’ll also shine a spotlight on the independent sellers powering Amazon’s extensive product selection. Let’s dive in.

Amazon.com statistics

• Sellers have the opportunity to reach millions of customers in over 180 countries as an Amazon selling partner.
• Amazon has over 300 million active customer accounts and over 1.9 million selling partners worldwide.
• Amazon Business, the B2B ecommerce channel, encompasses over 1 million customer accounts worldwide, over 150,000 sellers, and more than 10 billion in global annualized sales.

Amazon growth

• In 2020, more than 200,000 new third-party sellers from around the world began selling on Amazon, a 45% increase from 2019.
• In the U.S., Storefronts has grown to feature over 2.5 million products from roughly 30,000 businesses across various product categories.
• Nearly 2 million small- and medium-sized businesses are Amazon third-party selling partners.
• In 2020, Amazon hired 500,000 employees and now directly employs 1.3 million people around the world.
• Amazon created 400,000 new jobs in communities around the U.S. in 2020 and invested $34 billion in American infrastructure.
• In the 12 months ending on May 31, 2020, American SMB sellers each had an average of over $160,000 in sales, up from approximately $100,000 a year earlier. The number of U.S. SMB sellers that surpassed $1 million in sales grew by more than 20% in the same period.
• Amazon is pledging to hire over 100,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses by 2024.

Amazon seller sales

• Third-party sellers began to join Amazon in 1999. They now account for 58% of Amazon sales.
• Third-party sales in Amazon’s store are growing at 52% a year, compared to 25% for first-party sales by Amazon.
• In 2019, nearly 225,000 Amazon sellers worldwide eclipsed $100,000 in sales, up from nearly 200,000 in 2018—and 15,000 U.S. businesses broke $1 million.
• Third-party seller products account for more than half of all units sold in Amazon stores—an average of more than 6,500 American products per minute.
• Amazon Business, the B2B ecommerce channel, surpasses $25 billion in worldwide annualized sales.
• Globally, independent third-party sellers in Amazon’s stores increased their sales by more than 55% from April 15, 2020, to January 15, 2021. During the same time frame, the number of American small businesses that surpassed $1 million in sales increased by more than 30% year-over-year.

Usage by device

• Over 42 million unique desktop users in the U.S. visit Amazon stores each month.
• Over 126 million unique mobile visitors in the U.S. visit Amazon stores each month.

Amazon shoppers

• 300 million customers shop in Amazon stores worldwide.
• Customers complete 28% of Amazon purchases in three minutes or less. Half of all purchases finish in less than 15 minutes.
• Customers can order products from 1.9 million small- and medium-sized businesses in Amazon’s store.
• Amazon is #5 on the 2020 American Customer Satisfaction Index.
• Amazon.com is the #1 Top Shopping Website and #5 Top Beauty Destination among Teens, Piper Sandler’s Generation Z Survey, 2021.
• Amazon is the #2 Most Trusted Brand in America by Morning Consult, 2020.

COVID-19 impact

• In 2020, more than 200,000 new third-party sellers began selling in Amazon’s U.S. store—a 45% increase year-over-year and more than ever before as small businesses looked to sell online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• At the onset of the pandemic, Amazon invested over 5 billion in small business success and stability.
• Amazon invested $11.5 billion in COVID-related initiatives to keep employees safe and get products to customers, including more than $961 million on additional safety measures.
• To continue supporting SMBs throughout the pandemic, by the end of 2020, Amazon invested more than $18 billion to help independent businesses grow their sales in Amazon’s store.

Brands and Amazon

Brand tools

Since 2017, Brand Registry has unlocked a suite of advanced tools to help brand owners build and protect their business. Brand Registry is a free service that helps brand owners manage and protect their brand and intellectual property rights.

• More than 300,000 sellers are currently using Stores, a free multi-page branded storefront, to connect with customers.
• Over 2020, more than 500,000 sellers have used the Brand Analytics tool to accelerate their brands.

Brand and product discovery in Amazon’s store

• 75% of shoppers use Amazon to discover new products and brands.
• 52% of shoppers are more willing to buy an unfamiliar brand in Amazon’s store.

Brand protection

• Amazon invested over $900 million in 2021 to protect customers, brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse.
• Amazon employed more than 12,000 people in 2021 to protect customers, brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse. These employees include machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators.
• In 2020, Amazon connected more than 7,000 small and medium-sized businesses to trusted law firms in the U.S. and Europe through IP Accelerator. These businesses successfully submitted trademark applications and received early access to Brand Registry’s brand protection tools.
• Since 2017, 10 billion+ suspected bad listings were blocked by Brand Protection’s verification processes and over 2 million counterfeit products were seized before shipment.
• In 2020, Amazon’s verification processes prevented over 6 million attempts to create selling accounts, stopping bad actors before they published a single product for sale.
• In 2020, only 6% of attempted account registrations pass Amazon’s verifications processes and list products for sale.
• Brands are, on average, reporting 99% fewer suspected infringements than before the launch of Brand Registry.
• In 2020, there were more than 15,000 brands were using Transparency and more than 18,000 brands enrolled in Project Zero.

Small- and medium-sized businesses in Amazon stores

SMB growth and sales

• Products from small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) account for roughly 60% of sales in Amazon stores.
• During the 2020 holiday season, American SMBs sold nearly 1 billion products in Amazon’s store.
• More than 1.7 million SMBs sell in the Amazon store, making up close to 60% of Amazon retail sales, and contributing more than 2.2 million jobs globally.
• SMBs in the U.S. sell on average more than 4,000 items per minute and these businesses employ over 800,000 people.
• In the 12 months ending on May 31, 2020, American SMB sellers each had an average of over $160,000 in sales, up from approximately $100,000 a year earlier. The number of U.S. SMB sellers that surpassed $1 million in sales grew by more than 20%.
• American SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores had a record-breaking year in 2019, with more than 15,000 businesses surpassing $1 million in sales and nearly 25,000 surpassing $500,000 in sales.
• SMBs selling on the Amazon.com U.S. store support an estimated 1.1 million jobs in 2020, up from 830,000 in 2019.
• SMBs selling in Amazon’s store come from every state in the U.S. and more than 130 countries around the world.
• Nearly 30,000 small- and medium-sized brands are in Amazon Storefronts. They’ve sold over 250 million items to more than 70 million customers.
• As a whole, 85% of small businesses selling through Amazon stores say they added jobs in the past year (2020), compared to 52% who are not selling through Amazon.
• With Amazon Handmade, artisans from over 80 countries are selling their craft.
• The Seller Central Partner Network offers over 2,000 applications and more than 1,900 services from over 20 countries to automate, manage, and grow businesses—all Amazon approved.
• In 2020, European small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) sold more than 1.8 billion products in Amazon stores. European SMBs have also created over 550,000 jobs to support their businesses online.
• Over 40,000 European SMBs selling with Amazon surpassed €100,000 in sales, and over 3,000 surpassed €1 million in sales for the first time in 2020 (2021 SMB report).

Building a business with Amazon

Amazon has invested tens of billions in infrastructure to help independent sellers succeed. Offering hundreds of tools and comprehensive data analytics, Amazon helps sellers better understand and reach customers.

Infrastructure to help sellers

• Amazon has invested more than $30 billion between 2019 and 2020 in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to foster the growth of sellers.
• In 2020 alone, Amazon invested more than $18 billion in selling partner success.
• In 2020, Amazon launched more than 250 tools and services to help sellers manage and grow businesses.
• The new Explore Programs section of Seller Central has provided more than 10 million selling tips to sellers in 2020.
• The Amazon Partner Network offers more than 6,200 Amazon-vetted service providers and tools to help sellers build, manage, automate, and scale their business.
• In 2020, Amazon invested over $700 million and employed more than 10,000 people to protect stores on Amazon.com from fraud and abuse.

Amazon Advertising

• Amazon Advertising reaches 96% of all U.S. adults ages 25-54 every month.
• Cross-media brand campaigns including Amazon Advertising were found to be 41% more effective for driving brand awareness and 34% more effective for driving purchase intent than cross-media campaigns that did not include Amazon Advertising.
• Amazon mobile campaigns generate 450% more purchase intent lift than the industry average.

Loans and support

• Amazon provided more than $1 billion in Amazon Web Services credits to help early-stage startups accelerate their growth and development in 2020.
• Amazon Launchpad awarded $240,000 in small business grants in 2021.
• Since April 2020, Amazon and third-party lending partners have lent more than $800 million to American small- and medium-sized businesses to support their growth.

Growing a business with Amazon

• Small and medium businesses selling with Amazon come from every state in the U.S. and more than 130 countries worldwide.
• In 2020 alone, small businesses in the U.S. sold more than 3.4 billion products in Amazon’s store, up from 2.7 billion the previous year.
• Small businesses selling in Amazon’s stores are 2.5 times more likely (46% versus 18%) to have seen revenue growth of 25% or more in the past year than those not selling in Amazon stores.

Entrepreneurial growth

• In 2021: over 65,000 American sellers had over $100,000 in sales (up 10% year-over-year), more than 27,000 American sellers had over $500,000 in sales (up more than 10% year-over-year), and the number of American sellers that surpassed $1 million in sales grew by more than 15%.
• Amazon works with more than 2 million independent partners in the U.S., including sellers, developers, content creators, authors, and delivery providers (2020 Amazon SMB impact report).
• According to a recent poll of Amazon sellers, women own 48% of the businesses selling in Amazon’s store.
• Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has enabled over 1 million authors to publish their books globally, including publishing options in 40 languages.
• Amazon committed $150 million to empower Black entrepreneurs with the launch of the Black Business Accelerator to help build sustainable equity and growth for Black-owned businesses.
• Amazon committed $5 million, up to $10,000 per veteran, for eligible military veterans to start their own delivery business (2020 Amazon SMB impact report).

Prime free shipping, Prime Day, and holidays

• Between Black Friday and Christmas in 2021, U.S. third-party sellers sold an average of 11,500 products per minute.
• In 2021, Prime Day saw a 100% year-over-year increase in sales with customers spending over $1. billion on more than 70 million small business products during the spend $10, get $10 promotion.
• In 2020, Amazon’s Prime Day 2020 saw independent, third-party sellers surpass $3.5 billion in sales—a 60% year-over-year increase.
• Online sales soared from Black Friday to Cyber Monday in 2020, with independent businesses selling with Amazon gaining over 50% year-over-year growth in worldwide sales over the holiday season.
• During the 2019 U.S. holiday season, independent third-party sellers—mostly small- and medium-sized businesses—sold and shipped over 100 million items with Prime Free One-Day Delivery.

Read more: Start your ecommerce business

Amazon inventory stats

Warehouse and inventory storage

• Globally, Amazon operates more than 175 fulfillment centers with over 150 million square feet of space.
• Shelf space dedicated to third-party sellers in warehouses:
  
  • Around 800,000 square feet in size, sortable fulfillment centers can employ more than 1,500 full-time associates.
  • Ranging in size from 600,000 to 1 million square feet, non-sortable fulfillment centers employ more than 1,000 full-time associates.
  • Many centers span the equivalent of 28 football fields and can hold tens of millions of items on any given day.

Investment in logistics network

• Through 2019 and 2020, Amazon invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to help small- and medium-sized businesses.
• Amazon Delivery Service Partners have hired 75,000 new drivers since February 2020.

Learn more about inventory management

Amazon shipping and fulfillment stats

Nearly 84% of respondents to a recent survey regarded shipping as an important part of their online shopping experience. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) can help you scale your business and reach more customers.

Fulfillment centers, shipping and delivery

• Globally, Amazon operates more than 175 fulfillment centers with over 150 million square feet of space.
• Amazon has invested over $30 billion in the fulfillment network and fulfillment technology. These enhancements have included adding 35 million cubic feet of space to fulfillment centers.
• In 2020, Amazon increased square footage across the fulfillment and logistics network by more than 50%, opening dozens of new delivery stations and fulfillment centers around the world and hiring more than 450,000 new associates.
• Amazon plans to have 10,000 electric, custom delivery vehicles on the road as early as 2022.
• Amazon ships to over 100 countries and regions worldwide.
• Amazon partners with more than 2,200 U.S. delivery businesses who employ more than 95,000 drivers.

Join our team on a guided video tour through a fulfillment center

Fulfillment by Amazon

• In 2020, nearly half of all American selling partners took advantage of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), through which Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships orders for sellers from fulfillment centers around the world. Lowering shipping costs by 30%.
• Amazon invested tens of millions of dollars to help 70,000 U.S. sellers adopt FBA. Sellers can see a 20–25% increase in sales after adopting FBA.

Amazon Prime Stats

Amazon has more than 200 million Prime members worldwide as of 2020.

Amazon Prime free shipping

• Free delivery is the most important factor for 83% of shoppers who order online. More than half (54%) have abandoned online shopping baskets because of delivery costs.
• In December 2020, Amazon expanded to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by spending more than $100 million on new promotional activities to help small businesses connect with customers beginning with Prime Day and continuing through the holiday season.

Amazon Prime sales

• Prime Day 2021 showed record-breaking sales for third-party selling partners. After the full two-week period, customers spent over $1.9 billion on more than 70 million items, which was more than a 100% year-over-year increase in sales compared to Prime Day 2020.
• Prime Day 2020 showed $3.5 billion sales by third-party Selling Partners.
• In the two weeks leading up to Prime Day 2020, tens of millions of customers spent more than $900 million with small businesses selling in the Amazon store. Customers shopped from small businesses across all 50 U.S. states—with Utah, California, and New Jersey seeing the biggest sales per capita.
• In 2019, Prime Day sales surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined. Prime members shopped in 18 countries around the world which is double the number since Prime Day launched five years ago.
• During Prime Day 2019, third-party sellers exceeded $2 billion in global sales.

Amazon seller resources

Check out these Amazon guides for tips and pointers related to ecommerce:

• Ecommerce business guide
• Dropshipping in 2023: What is dropshipping and how does it work?
• Inventory management 101
• Ecommerce fulfillment guide to grow your business
• Build an online store featuring your brand
• Online Business Ideas: 38 Businesses That Used Amazon to Grow

Launch your business with Amazon

Since its founding in 1995, Amazon has grown from a small online business to an ecommerce powerhouse. Today, more than 1.7 million small- and medium-sized businesses around the world sell in Amazon’s stores, drawing more than 300+ million customers worldwide with active accounts in over 180 countries.

Join the growing and thriving community of brands and sellers in Amazon’s store.

Create your Amazon seller account