Small Business News

Report: 60% of Amazon Sales Come From Independent Sellers

by Kyle BurbankMay 26, 2023

The Internet’s everything store Amazon has released a new report highlighting the impact that small businesses and independent sellers on the site had in 2022.

From the report:

According to Amazon’s latest Small Business Empowerment Report, 60% of the site’s sales come from independent businesses. Amazon notes that “most” of these independent sellers are small to medium-sized businesses, but did not offer a special breakdown. In any case, the site also reports that sales from independent businesses increased year over year.

In 2022, independent sellers in the United States sold a total of more than 4.1 billion products on Amazon. This includes exporting over 260 million products via the site. More importantly, Amazon says that these sellers created an estimated 1.5 million jobs last year alone.

As for what verticals independent sellers have performed the best in, Health & Personal Care topped the list followed by Home, Beauty, Grocery, and Apparel. Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the top states where independent sellers resided were larger, more populous states, such as California, Florida, New York, Texas, and New Jersey. However, The state with the largest number of independent Amazon sellers per capita was Wyoming followed by Delaware. Florida also managed to make its way onto that list as well.

What they’re saying:

Commenting on the report and Amazon’s relationship with small businesses in general, the site’s VP of Worldwide Selling Partner Service Dharmesh Mehta said, “Small businesses are the heart of our local communities and the backbone of the U.S. economy. Amazon invests billions of dollars annually to provide entrepreneurs with a constantly improving set of valuable tools and resources to help them gain access to capital, quickly launch in our store, build their brands, and rapidly scale and reach more customers.” Mehta added, “Amazon is committed to the success of small businesses, and we are excited to continue innovating on their behalf and help them grow into thriving success stories.”

Additionally, Amazon Worldwide Stores CEO Doug Herrington noted, “Ever since small and medium-sized businesses started selling products in our store 23 years ago, I’ve been impressed by their passion, creativity, and commitment to customers. All these years later, having met many sellers in person, I remain blown away by their brand building, agility, and ability to look around corners and anticipate new product trends. I am proud that hard-working, diverse, and smart entrepreneurs continue to find success growing their businesses in Amazon’s store, and I appreciate the immense value that together, we are able to bring to customers around the world.”

My thoughts:

In recent years, Amazon has launched a number of initiatives meant to help small businesses operate on their site — and they’ve not been shy about sharing the impacts of these efforts. On the one hand, one has to imagine that the ubiquity of Amazon has been a net negative for small businesses on the whole. However, it is fair to say that the site has also empowered a number of other businesses (and perhaps some of the same ones that have since pivoted to online sales) to thrive. Surely this will be a hotly contested issue for years to come as Amazon remains controversial in many ways. Yet, setting that aside, it is good to see what small to medium-sized businesses, as well as other independent sellers, are finding success on the platform and beyond.

Author

Kyle Burbank

Head Writer ~ Fioney

Kyle is the head writer for Fioney. He is a personal finance nerd, constantly looking for new apps and services to test and incorporate into his own financial game plan. In addition to his role at Fioney, he's written for other publications including Born2Invest, Lifehack, and Laughing Place, as well as his own site Money@30. He also creates personal finance and travel-related videos for Money@30's YouTube channel, which has garnered more than 2 million views. Currently, Kyle resides in Springfield, Missouri with his wife of 10 years. Together, they enjoy traveling (including visiting Disney Parks around the world), dining, and playing with their dog Rigby.

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