Third parties, SMBs thrive on Amazon Stores

Some interesting sales trends emerged on the Amazon site during 2018.

Third-party sales grew at faster rate than first-party sales in Amazon’s online stores in the U.S. last year. This growth may have been aided by the September 2018 launch of Amazon Storefronts, a section on its website dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operating the United States.

On a worldwide basis, third-party sales outpaced first-party sales during the 2018 holiday season.

Third-party SMBs in particular had a strong year at Amazon. More than 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses exceeded $500,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide, and nearly 200,000 surpassed $100,000 in sales in the etail giant’s online stores. Millions of small and medium-sized businesses from more than 130 countries around the world are selling in Amazon’s stores, with more than 1 million of them based in every state in the U.S.

The number of SMBs eclipsing $1 million in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide grew by 20% in 2018. In addition, more than half of units sold in Amazon’s stores are from small and medium-sized businesses. SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores exceeded $1.5 billion in sales during the Prime Day event.

“This year growth of small and medium-sized businesses in our stores enabled business owners to create new products, provide greater selection to customers, and reinvest in their local communities through job creation,” said Nick Denissen, VP for Amazon. “Since we opened our shelves to third-party sellers in 2001, small and medium-sized businesses have been an integral part of Amazon’s DNA. Our guiding star is an obsession with customers, and the service we’ve built is more powerful because we have small and medium-sized businesses complementing and competing with our retail business.”