In terms of scale alone, Amazon accounted for 37.8% of the U.S. e-commerce market by June of 2022, making it easily the leading online retailer in the country. Let’s look a little deeper into the numbers and see what else they can reveal about global shopping habits and how much sellers on Amazon earn.
Amazon’s Share of the U.S. E-Commerce Market
37.8%, or about two in five, of all sales online take place on Amazon. Amazon has definitely declared itself the winner of the dotcom boom—by not just surviving but thriving no matter what the world throws its way. With billions of searches and products and millions of third-party sellers and employees, everything about Amazon’s numbers is big.
In this guide, we’ll look at Amazon statistics, from how much of the market Amazon controls to how much you can expect to make as an Amazon Seller and more. First, here are some of the top-line data points we’ll be exploring:
Key Statistics
- As of June 2022, Amazon accounted for 37.8% of the American e-commerce market and was the country’s leading online retailer.
- Walmart occupies second place with a 6.3% market share, followed in third place by Apple, with 3.9%.
- Nearly 60% of all online purchases at U.S. retailers happened on Amazon in 2022.
- Amazon gets 2 billion monthly visits in the U.S., making it the most visited online marketplace.
- In 2021 50% of all eCommerce purchases in the U.S. happened through Amazon.
Amazon Employment Statistics
By the third quarter of 2022, Amazon had more than 1.5 million part-time and full-time employees. This is down from 1.62 million in the first quarter of 2022. Amazon is a major employer in the United States, between Amazon Web Services, its warehouses, and delivery trucks. All those packages, television shows, and products like the Amazon Echo or Amazon CloudWatch won’t deliver themselves. But there are also some heartening numbers regarding equity and economic parity in the company.
Key Statistics
- 1,608,000 full- and part-time employees worked at Amazon in 2021.
- Amazon hired about 125,000 seasonal workers for the 2021 holiday season.
- A 2021 compensation review of compensation shows that women in Amazon’s workforce in the U.S. earned 99.9 cents for every dollar men earned
- Minorities earned 99.2 cents for every dollar white employees earned, in the U.S., for performing the same jobs.
Sources: Save My Cent, About Amazon, Statista
Amazon Net Revenue
Amazon revenue for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, was $502.19 billion—a 9.66% increase year-over-year. Amazon annual revenue for 2021 was $469.82 billion, a 21.7% increase from 2020.
Amazon’s net sales, as of 2021, were $469.82 billion. That’s almost 100 billion more than 2020’s net, $386.06 billion. Third-party sellers offer their wares in the Amazon Marketplace, where sales rose to $295 billion in 2020, or 59% as much as Amazon’s revenue.
Key Statistics
- Amazon revenue for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, was $502.19 billion.
- That’s a 9.66% increase year-over-year: Amazon annual revenue for 2021 was $469.82 billion.
- Amazon has a daily revenue of over $1.29 billion.
- In 2021, Amazon made $469 billion in net sales—more than the 14 next most profitable U.S. retailers combined.
Sources: Save My Cents, Statista, Marketplace Pulse
Amazon Desktop and Mobile Visits Combined
In April 2022, Amazon.com had approximately 2.3 billion combined desktop and mobile visitors and 2.4 billion in the following month.
Amazon.com’s traffic is big: 2.94 billion visitors, as of November 2022. That’s 19th worldwide and 8th in the United States. In May 2022, Amazon.com received about 2.4 billion combined desktop and mobile visits, up from 2.3 billion visits in April. In just the third quarter of 2021, e-commerce sales accounted for 13% of retail sales in the United States, for a total of $215 billion.
Key Statistics
- Amazon.com is 19th worldwide and 8th for U.S. traffic.
- Amazon averages 5.3 billion visitors per month as of July 2022.
- The second most popular shopping site is eBay, which only gets around 3 billion monthly visits. That’s 57% less.
- In the third quarter of 2021, e-commerce sales accounted for 13% of all retail in the U.S.
- In that same quarter, the third of 2021, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to over $215 billion.
Amazon Prime Statistics
Amazon Prime has made its way into the national and global consciousness. As a free-shipping magnet for business, it’s proven phenomenal. Prime T.V. shows are regularly among the best premium cable has to offer. And that’s not all—it’s just the beginning of what Prime subscribers are getting. Let’s investigate the Amazon statistics around Prime subscriptions.
Average Rate Amazon Prime Members Spend
The average Prime member spends $1,400 per year ordering from Amazon. Non-Prime members spend less than half that: just $600 per year.
Almost 25% of Prime members don’t spend more than $100 in a year—less than the cost of the subscription.
Key Statistics
- Amazon Prime members spend an average of $1,400 a year.
- Non-Prime members spend around $600 annually.
- According to a 2021 survey, 31% of Prime members spend $51 to $100 a month on Amazon, and almost a quarter spend $100 or less.
Sources: USA Today, The Motley Fool
Number of Subscribed Amazon Prime Members
In 2022, Amazon Prime members numbered about 163.5 million. By 2025, that number should reach more than 176 million.
Key Statistics
- As of March 2022, an Amazon Prime membership costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month, and Prime Student accounts rose to $69 yearly.
- There are currently 200 million global Amazon Prime subscribers and 163.5 million Amazon Prime members in the U.S.
- By 2025, that number should grow by over ten million, reaching more than 176 million members.
Sources: Backlinko, Earthweb, The Motley Fool
Amazon Product Sales Statistics
Small and medium American businesses average 4,000 items sold per minute on Amazon stores.
U.S. Medium and Small Businesses Average Sales Per Minute on Amazon Stores
Having such global reach on the platform has levelled the playing field for small and mid-sized businesses, letting them compete with bigger companies. Amazon’s fulfilment services also make it easy by offering a way for small and medium businesses to store and ship their offerings.
Key Statistics
- Amazon has 300+ million active customer accounts to sell to, and over 1.9 million global partners supplying them with exactly what they need.
- Two million small and medium businesses are Amazon third-party selling partners.
- Third-party seller products account for more than half of all units sold in Amazon stores, an average of more than 6,500 U.S. product sales a minute.
- 65% of sellers see profit margins higher than 10%, including the 32% with profit margins above 20%.
- Small and medium business owners in the U.S. sell an average of 4,000 items per minute on Amazon stores.
Sources: Amazon, Save My Cent
Products with the Highest Profit Margins on Amazon
Calculating your profit margin as an Amazon seller is pretty simple. “Gross profit” defines profit as any income that is left after the cost of goods sold (COGS), expressed as a percentage:
Gross Margin = ((Sales – Cost Of Goods Sold)/Sales) x 100
Here are some real examples. According to the 2022 State of the Amazon Seller Report, these are the top five product categories by listing, with their respective profit margins:
- Home and Kitchen: 32% profit margin
- Beauty and Personal Care: 23% profit margin
- Toys and Games: 20% profit margin
- Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry: 18% profit margin
- Health, Household, and Baby Care: 17% profit margin
Key Statistics
- Less popular categories can be more profitable: 9% of sellers make over 50% net profit in the Handmade category, as opposed to the 4% of sellers in Home and Kitchen.
- The greatest portion of Amazon sellers falls into the 16 to 20% profit margin range.
- 32% of sellers are seeing profits of 20% or higher.
- A 5% profit margin or less is low, but only about 9% of sellers fall into this product category.
Sources: JungleScout, PIRS Capital
Amazon Seller Statistics
Many business owneres dream of selling goods on Amazon and seeing business really take off. Plenty of Americans and global sellers have done just that, taking into account the Amazon statistics in guides like this one.
Numbers of Sellers on Amazon
The total number of Amazon sellers continues to grow. 9.1 million sellers worldwide, 2.3 million active sellers, and 1 million new sellers joined in 2020 alone, and more than 130,000 third-party sellers hit the $100,000 mark by the end of 2020. In fact, the number of third-party sellers already on the platform is almost as eye-popping as the numbers Amazon reports for their success.
Key Statistics
- The total number of sellers on Amazon is nearly 9.7 million, with 1.9 million active sellers on the Marketplace in 2022.
- Roughly 3,700 new sellers join Amazon every day.
- 85% of Amazon sellers were profitable businesses in 2021, and 64% of Amazon sellers are profitable within their first year of selling.
- 60,000 sellers generated more than $1 million in 2021.
Sources: Renolon, OJ Digital Solutions
Amazon Seller Statistics
The entrepreneurial spirit has found a new outlet with Amazon Marketplace, and becoming an Amazon Seller is tough—but it can be rewarding. Read on for just how rewarding it might be. And be aware, there are some truly shocking numbers coming up…
Key Statistics
- 50% of Amazon Sellers make an income of $1,000 to $25,000 per month.
- 13% of Amazon Sellers make $25,000 to $250,000/month—that’s $300,000 to $3 million a year.
- In a 2021 study, 44% of Amazon Sellers made between $1,000 and $25,000 a month.
- Only 3% of sellers surveyed achieved profit margins above 50%.
Sources: JungleScout, Project FBA, policyadvice.net
Number of Amazon Sellers That Use FBA
Over 90% of Amazon sellers use Fulfilled By Amazon, or Amazon FBA. While the overwhelming majority of Amazon sellers prefer to pay Amazon to store and ship their products, there has been a 10% increase in sellers using Fulfilled By Merchant, or FBM. This simply means these sellers stored and shipped their own merchandise. Experts believe this is due to the supply chain issues in 2020 and 2021.
Key Statistics
- Nearly 90% of Amazon sellers use Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA).
- An official Amazon report claims small and medium businesses sell over 4,000 products every minute on average.
Sources: Fits Small Business, Seller App
Amazon Search Statistics
It’s more difficult to think of something that Amazon doesn’t sell than to imagine all the things it does. Between Amazon itself and the Amazon Marketplace, chances are shoppers will find exactly what they’re looking for.
What People Mostly Search for on Amazon
Of course, if you’re thinking of selling, it’s probably a good idea to see what people are buying. The good news is, whatever your niche—somebody out there is looking for what you have to sell. Here are snapshots of two different months in 2021 to give you a sense of how quickly these things can change.
Top searches in the U.S. (January 2021):
- Nintendo Switch: 1,263,407 searches
- Laptop: 1,099,346 searches
- AirPods, headphones, or wireless earbuds: 2,347,306 searches
- iPad: 697,451
- Game of Thrones: 653,749
- Fire Stick: 622,172
- SSD: 610,063
- Fitbit: 591,244
Top searches in the U.S. (May 2021):
- Fidget toys: 2,789,767 searches
- Searches for “Mothers’ Day gifts” or simply “Mother’s Day”: 3,897,823
- Air fryer: 1,660,896
- LED lights: 1,546,606
- PS5: 1,477,337
- Summer dresses for women: 1,400,223 searches
- Apple Watch band: 1,391,565
- Candy: 1,339,868
- TV stand: 1,331,191
Conclusion
Some astonishing facts and big numbers come into play when you’re talking about Amazon statistics. Amazon gets two billion visits a month, and a staggering three in five online sales happen on the platform. Most Amazon Sellers use FBA, half of them make at least $1,000 per month, and 13% make over $25,000 monthly.
But perhaps the most surprising fact is this: In 2021 alone, Amazon made more than the next 14 U.S. retailers combined, with $469 billion in net sales. This means Amazon made $1.29 billion a day, $53.5 million an hour, and $2.23 million a minute.