14 Interesting Amazon Product Sales Statistics in 2024

If you’re looking to break into the world of e-commerce then you will need Amazon.

There is little doubt that Amazon dominates the world of e-Commerce. 

Creating an account with Amazon and listing your products is a great way to get in front of millions of potential customers. 

Still not convinced regarding how essential Amazon is? 

Take a look at the following Amazon product sales statistics and you’ll understand why you need them.

Key Statistics

• In May 2022 Amazon had 2.4 billion visitors
• 7,500 products are sold every minute via Amazon in the US
• The company makes $53 million an hour
• Amazon sales in 2021 were $197.478 billion
• Amazon has over 1.3 million employees
• Over 30,000 physical stores have switched to amazon
• There are over 9.5 million Amazon sellers
• Amazon is ranked as the seventh-best ecommerce brand
• 57% of third-party sellers are aged between 27-44
• 64% of Amazon product sellers are male
• 49% of Amazon sellers are based in the US
• 71% of Amazon sellers have a Bachelor’s degree
• 70% of third-party Amazon sellers have other jobs
• 32% of product sales are categorized as home and kitchen

Introducing Amazon

Amazon was launched from Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1995.

Initially, Amazon simply sold books online, giving people the convenience of ordering online and receiving the book shortly after. 

Unsurprisingly, the business was a success, within just one month Amazon had shipped books to all 50 states in the US and to an impressive 45 different countries. 

Shortly after launching Bezos saw the potential in selling other items on Amazon.

Gradually an array of products were introduced, along with the marketplace principle.

This allows anyone to sell through Amazon. 

His approach was sound and, despite the dot.com bubble bursting in 2001, Amazon continued to flourish.

It soon became known as ‘The Everything Store’, simply because you can buy almost anything you can think of through Amazon. 

Today, Amazon is recognized around the globe, has a wide array of products, and is even investing in space travel!

Top Amazon Product Sales Statistics in 2024

1. In May 2022 Amazon Had 2.4 Billion Visitors

Within the first thirty days of Amazon’s existence, it had generated a revenue of $20,000 a week.

That’s impressive for a startup.

It should be noted that this was the early days of the internet.

It was a significant feat to be able to attract the number of customers needed to create this level of sales.

Naturally, the company has built on its early years and kept the same approach.

That’s why, statistics show that in May 2022 the Amazon website had over 2.4 billion visitors. 

Regardless of what conversion rate you use, that’s going to turn into millions of orders. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a breakdown of how many arrived via desktop and how many were on mobile devices. 

Since 2016 mobile internet access has overtaken desktop.

However, statistics suggest that Amazon customers often prefer to shop via desktop.

It’s worth noting that during May 2022 eBay had 885 million visits and Walmart had 410 million.

That’s two of Amazon’s major competitors. 

(Statista)

2. 7,500 Products Are Sold Every Minute Via Amazon In The US

You know Amazon is big, has millions of visitors a month, and an impressive array of products available.

However, you may still be surprised to learn that, in the US alone, Amazon sells 7,500 products every minute.

It’s difficult to find any other company that can make the same claim, explaining why Amazon is such a dominant force in the industry.

Of course, the number of products sold is helped by the sheer number of products available on their site.

The most recent estimates suggest there are over 12 million products available through Amazon. 

(aboutamazon)

3. The Company Makes $53 Million An Hour

Amazon earns billions in revenue every year, although this doesn’t always equate to a profit.

It’s worth noting the company posted a net loss in 2022, the first for seven years.

However, the loss was due to an array of factors, in part the economy and partly poor management decisions.

The truth is it still earned billions that year. 

To give you an idea of what that means, consider this.

Amazon earns $14,990 every second.

That’s the equivalent of $894,000 a minute and $53 million every hour of every day!

Internet issues can cause a real headache for Amazon.

While the site being down is rare, it has happened.

In 2013 the site went down and stayed down for forty minutes. 

During that short space of time, Amazon lost $5 million in revenue. 

That was ten years ago and Amazon’s revenue was much smaller then.

Today, the figure for the same 40 minutes of downtime would be closer to $36 million. 

(Amazon)

4. Amazon Sales In 2021 Were $197.478 Billion

Amazon itself earned $469,822 billion in revenue during 2021.

However, this figure is small compared to how much revenue was generated by sales. 

Remember, while Amazon does list and sell its own products, much of what is sold is by businesses using the Amazon online marketplace.

Amazon charges every business a fee based on costs, that’s Amazon’s revenue.

The actual sales value for products is the price every item was sold for, before any cost deductions.

In 2021 this was $197.478 billion, an impressive 29.28% from 2020. 

It’s hard to turn this figure into the number of products sold as it’s virtually impossible to identify an average price.

Experts have put it anywhere between $26 and $142!

Whichever way you look at this figure, sales and seller numbers are increasing, as is Amazon’s market dominance. 

(Amazon)

5. Amazon Has Over 1.3 Million Employees

As the company has grown so has the number of employees.

Of course, there have been controversies along the way, such as when Amazon automated much of the picking and packing process.

There were also issues regarding staff care during the pandemic.

Despite this, the company still employs a large number of people.

The global pandemic forced many people to purchase items online, and for many, Amazon was the obvious choice. 

In order to meet their delivery commitments, Amazon hired an additional 500,000 staff in 2020. 

This brought the total number of staff in the US to 500,000 and globally, 1.3 million in that year.

It’s a long way from the 2017 employee number of 17,000!

Interestingly, employee numbers went up again in 2021, potentially a result of the ongoing pandemic.

According to Statista Amazon had just over 1.6 million employees in 2021. 

This dropped slightly to 1.54 million in 2022.

It seems likely that the company will continue to employ this number of people for the foreseeable future. 

Post-pandemic far more people are shopping online than ever before. 

It’s worth noting that Amazon employs a lot more people than Google or eBay, two of its main competitors.

(Digital Solutions)

6. Over 30,000 Physical Stores Have Switched To Amazon

Amazon makes it possible for any business to reach millions of customers around the globe.

Opening an account costs nothing, although there is a charge for every product sold through Amazon.

This is intended to cover the costs of selling on the platform. 

In many cases, this charge is significantly cheaper than the costs associated with a physical premise. 

An increasing number of physical stores are seeing a downturn in customer visits.

This is partly a continuation of the pandemic mentality and partly the ease and convenience associated with shopping online. 

For these stores, it makes financial sense to start selling through Amazon instead of having a physical premise.

Naturally, it is mainly independent shops that are affected, large chains have the advantage of bulk-buying power. 

As a result, over 30,000 physical stores are known to have migrated their entire business onto Amazon. 

You can now find over two million small and medium-sized businesses on Amazon as third-party sellers.

Many have started on Amazon but a growing number have transferred from physical stores to the online marketplace. 

(Digital Solutions)

7. There Are Over 9.5 Million Amazon Sellers

Third-party sellers are responsible for a large portion of Amazon’s revenue.

That’s why the company actively encourages more people to start selling online, through Amazon. 

Their efforts have not gone in vain.

According to the latest figures, 58% of Amazon accounts are sellers.

That’s over 9.5 million individuals and businesses with Amazon accounts, registered to sell products. 

That’s part of the reason why there are so many products on Amazon. 

Of those 9.5 million global sellers, the majority are based in the US.

There was a big surge in Amazon sellers during the pandemic.

In 2020 1 million new sellers joined Amazon, simply trying to survive the pandemic.

Impressively, 500,000 new sellers were from the US.

It’s worth noting that over 130,000 third-party sellers recorded revenues of over $100,000 during 2020.

That’s a testimony to the possibilities with Amazon. 

New Amazon sellers will generally make between $26,000 and $810,000 annually.

The exact amount depends on what they are selling and whether they have an existing brand or not. 

(Digital Solutions)

8. Amazon Is Ranked As The Seventh-Best ECommerce Brand

In a recent survey, the biggest internet-based companies were evaluated based on how easy their sites were to use, how profitable they were, how easy they were to communicate with, and what their level of customer service was. 

Amazon managed to secure seventh place, making it one of the best companies in the world. 

Sadly for Amazon, both Walmart and eBay, two of its main competitors, were ranked higher.

In fact, eBay took the number one spot. 

Of course, Amazon had a bad year in 2022, eventually posting a net loss.

This may have negatively affected their list position.

(Digital Solutions)

9. 57% Of Third-Party Sellers Are Aged Between 27-44

In a recent survey by Statista it was found that the majority of third-party sellers are aged between 27-44.

The exact number of sellers in this category is 57%, that’s over half. 

These figures can be broken down further.

Just 5% of third-party sellers are aged 18-24.

That’s not surprising as most younger people are still working out who they are, while deciding on a career. 

Those aged 25-34 represent 30% of Amazon sellers, with 28% of sellers being people aged between 35 and 44. 

The percentages decrease with age.

Just 21% of Amazon sellers are 45-54 years old and 12% are 55-64, with 3% aged between 65-80, and an impressive 1% of sellers are actually over 80 years old.  

These figures are generally similar to internet usage and age.

Older people haven’t grown up with the internet and tend to use it less. 

(Statista)

10. 64% Of Amazon Product Sellers Are Male

The internet isn’t generally seen as more male-orientated or female.

Obviously, there are niches preferred by one sex or the other. 

In short, anyone, regardless of gender, should be able to sell products on Amazon and potentially build a successful business.

Yet, according to the latest research, 64% of Amazon sellers are men, 32% are women, and 4% are listed as other or prefer not to say. 

This could be due to men generally taking more risks than women.

However, there isn’t currently enough research to clarify why there are significantly more male sellers than any other. 

11. 49% Of Amazon Sellers Are Based In The US

Amazon started trading in the US and has been building its market there ever since.

It’s estimated that 49% of Amazon sellers are based in the US. 

That sounds impressive and it’s a lot of people.

However, even several million US sellers are nothing compared to the 330 million people who live in the US. 

In short, Amazon can reach millions more sellers. 

The rest of the world doesn’t get close to the level of sellers in the US.

China, the UK, and Canada all are home to 7% of Amazon sellers.

That’s interesting as the population numbers vary dramatically between these countries. 

Canada is home to just 39 million people, the UK has a population of 67 million, and China’s population is roughly 1.45 billion!

A further 5% of sellers are based in India and the remaining  25% are across the globe, there are small numbers of them in most countries around the planet. 

In regards to US sellers, the largest quantity is based in California, that’s 18% of US sellers.

Approximately 9% of sellers are in Florida, and another 9% in Texas. 

The State of New York is home to 6% of US Amazon sellers and Illinois also has 6%.

The remaining 53% of US-based sellers are scattered across the other 45 states.

There is a seller in every state. 

(Jungle Scout)

12. 71% Of Amazon Sellers Have A Bachelor’s Degree

The latest figures from Statista show that the majority of Amazon product sellers are well-educated. 

According to the study, 71% of sellers have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Impressively 28% of all sellers have a master’s degree. 

The study also found that 13% of respondents have an associate degree or some form of post-secondary education and qualification. 

Just 12% of sellers had a high school diploma as their highest educational achievement and only 2% had no high school qualifications. 

Interestingly, 2% of respondents stated they had trade or technical experience which led them to start selling on Amazon.

These people certainly have the knowledge.

Unfortunately, there is no analysis of which categories have been the most successful selling on Amazon. That would help tell if the education made a significant difference or not. 

(Statista)

13. 70% Of Third-Party Amazon Sellers Have Other Jobs

Amazon recently conducted a survey to find out more about their product sellers.

Interestingly, the survey found that 70% of people selling on Amazon have another job.

It didn’t confirm whether these people were hoping to turn Amazon into something full-time or not. 

The survey found that 36% of Amazon sellers were also working full-time.

That means a regular job with over 40 hours a week. 

Just 9% of sellers were working part-time, doing between 1 and 39 hours a week.

Impressively, 22% of sellers earned income from Amazon and nothing else.

In addition, 25% of sellers had their own business and were branching out into Amazon to boost sales and customer numbers. 

A further 1% of sellers were unemployed and not looking for work, while 1% were students.

Another 1% were listed as disabled and unable to work, and 2% of sellers were retired. 

(Amazon)

14. 32% Of Product Sales Are Categorized As Home And Kitchen

If you’re looking to start selling on Amazon then you’ll find this statistic very useful. 

According to the latest Statista report, 32% of all Amazon sales are under the category of home and kitchen.

It’s the most popular category on the site, making it a good place to list your products. 

The next most popular is Beauty and Personal Care which has a 23% share, that’s still an impressive figure. 

Other popular categories include Clothing, shoes, and jewelry which have a 20% share of the seller’s market.

Toys and games take an 18% share, while Health, household, and baby care grab 17%.

Electronics are also popular with a 16% share, and sports and outdoor equipment take the same percentage. 

Pet supplies and office supplies take 13% each.

You should note, that’s over 100% but a seller can be selling in multiple categories.

(Statista)

Getting Started With Amazon

Getting started with Amazon doesn’t need to be difficult.

However, before you start you will need a good product idea. 

The best approach is to think of a product you use regularly, preferably one that isn’t easily available online. 

You’ll then need to identify what problem the product is solving: that’s your selling pitch. 

To get started you’ll need to create an Amazon seller’s account.

This is simpler than you think.

You will need to choose between an individual or a professional account.

The individual account charges you $0.99 per sale.

The professional has a flat fee of $39.99 a month.

That means it makes sense as soon as you sell over 40 items a month.

You can change your plan at any time.

Select the account type and enter your business name, address, and a few other details, such as your bank details, any tax information, and what category of products you wish to sell in. 

With your account created it’s time to create your first product.

You’ll need to go to Seller Central within your account.

There are many useful features in this part of the site. 

Select the product listing option and you can create your first product.

It’s simply a case of adding a picture or two and a short description.

You’ll also need to set the price. 

Your product will now go live and you can create the next one. 

However, to make a success of your Amazon business you’ll need to promote it.

This can be time-consuming and challenging, but it’s the only way to build brand awareness and attract consumers.

You can track all your statistics in Seller Central.

That includes visitor numbers, sales, costs, etc. 

Don’t forget, if you’re selling a physical product you need to decide on the delivery options.

If you select merchant-filled then you need to send the parcel yourself.

But, if you use Amazon Fulfillment Amazon will ship the product for you.

Of course, you’ll need to store your product in their Fulfillment warehouse. 

Summing Up

If you’ve looked through all the Amazon product sales statistics then you’ll have realized that Amazon makes a lot of money via third-party sellers. 

More importantly, anyone can become a third-party seller, even you.

All you need to do is create your Amazon account and start listing your products. 

Then, use these statistics to maximize the number of potential customers you can reach and start selling. 

It’s challenging but possible, allowing you to boost Amazon’s figures further and become part of the success story at the same time. 

Sources

SellerApp	OJ Digital Solutions	Jungle Scout
	Statista