21 Amazing Amazon Statistics You Need to Read

Today, Amazon statistics rank the company as the top online marketplace and streaming service. Amazon’s speedy growth from a humble garage invention to a competitor of IT giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft is a story worth telling.
And we’re here to back the story up with facts.

So, whether you’re curious about the best things to sell on Amazon or you’re here for fascinating facts, we’ve got you covered!

Let’s get cracking:

Astonishing Amazon Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

• Amazon’s net sales for 2020 stood at US$ 386 billion.
• North America accounts for 61% of Amazon’s customer base, churning out revenue of US$ 8.6 billion in 2020.
• 45% of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses exported products to the US and overseas in 2018.
• Electronics are the most sold items on Amazon, accounting for 44% of sales.
• Amazon Marketplace Canada receives 161.3 million monthly visits.
• 65% of all Amazon users are subscribers of Amazon Prime.
• Amazon provides a lucrative marketplace, with 50% of sellers earning between 80% and 100%.

Global Amazon Stats

1. Amazon statistics for 2020 state the company made US$386 billion in sales.

(Source: Amazon, Repricer Express)

This figure is up by a massive 37% from the previous year when sales stood at US$280 billion. While many ecommerce sites have faced closures due to the pandemic, Amazon seems to have made significant profits even at a time of economic crisis.

It seems even more impressive when you break it down. Check this out:
Every minute Amazon makes sales worth US$283,000. This equals hourly sales of more than US$17 million.

2. The company registered a net income of US$21.3 billion in 2020.

(Source: Amazon)

Buyer behaviour reportedly changed with every lockdown. The one-click purchase pushed buyers towards top sellers’ offerings, and sales rocketed to over $20 billion.

Does that seem much?

Here’s the truth:

It’s nearly double the 2019 income. Amazon statistics for 2019 report a net income of around US$ 11.6 billion.

3. Amazon invested US$2.5 billion in additional pay for its frontline workers during the Coronavirus lockdowns, Amazon statistics during the pandemic reveal.

(Sources: Amazon, The Verge)

Frontline workers’ hard work and dedication pumped up the Amazon revenue even amidst a pandemic.

So, what did Amazon pledge?

Here’s the deal:

• To pay employees a minimum of US$15 per hour, double the federal minimum wage.
• To provide all-around healthcare benefits to all full-time employees.
• To prioritize vaccination programs for its frontline employees.
• To create 175,000 new jobs, out of which 125,000 would be full-time positions.
• To circulate a one-time bonus of US$500 million among frontline workers.

4. Amazon is most popular in North America, as its customer base contributed an income of US$8.6 billion in 2020.

(Source: Statista)

Compared to international stats, this number is quite impressive. The reported international income was US$717 million for the same year. At the same time, the US and Canada together make up for 61% of Amazon’s customer base.

5. Surpassing Amazon’s online shopping statistics are Amazon Web Services, which generated US$13.5 billion in company profits in 2020.

(Source: Statista)

Now that’s one among many Amazon stats we love! Amazon is primarily an online marketplace, and AWS is its subsidy that offers cloud computing solutions to companies.

Now:

This segment of Amazon has been churning out steady profits since 2014. It began with an income of US$ 458 million in 2014 and grew to a whopping US$ 13.5 billion in 2020.

6. Amazon statistics for 2021 suggest that the top segments in Q1 were online shopping with US$52.9 billion in sales and third-party retailers with US$ 23.7 billion.

(Source: Statista)

Physical stores performed most poorly in Q1 2021, earning a mere US$3.9 billion because of the ongoing Coronavirus crisis. This figure is down from US$ 4.6 million for the same quarter of 2020, which marked the eve of the pandemic.

Here’s the deal:

Buyers have shifted their attention to online shopping following outlet closures. Figures climbed from US$36.6 billion in Q1 2020 to the current sum of US$52.9 million in Q1 of 2021.

7. Amazon statistics counted 2.5 billion desktop and mobile visits to Amazon.com in May 2020.

(Source: Medium)

Combined desktop and mobile visits to Amazon peaked in December 2019 with 2.7 billion. There was some fluctuation over the following months, with a steep fall to 2.01 billion. However, the numbers have stabilized since then, averaging around 2.4 billion.

8. 56.4% of visits to Amazon are direct traffic.

(Sources: Statista, Oberlo)

Here are some cool Amazon facts for you:

Organic searches primarily lead users to the site. Referrals account for only 5.5% of visits. There were 208 million unique visits in April 2020 alone.

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Top Amazon Products

9. Electronics is the most popular category on Amazon, with 44% of US customers ordering.

(Source: Feedvisor)

We all know by now that Amazon has a vast and diverse inventory. Just how extensive is it, though? A 2019 survey outlined some of the most bought items on Amazon.
They are:

• Electronics – 44%
• Clothing, shoes, and jewelry – 43%
• Home and kitchen supplies – 39%
• Beauty products – 36%
• Books – 33%

But what does Amazon sell the most?

10. Amazon features 36 product categories and sells more than 12 million products (not including services, media, books, and wine).

(Source: Sellbrite)

This is huge! But what are the most profitable categories for prospective sellers?

Let’s check out the latest Amazon trends to find out:

• Toys
• Electronics
• Video games
• Books

Next:

11. 15% of top Amazon sellers reported listing home and kitchen supplies as the bestselling products in 2021.

(Source: Statista)

12% of sellers sold beauty products, while 11% sold clothes and apparel. Besides being a marketplace serving diverse needs, it is a lucrative retail space.

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Buyers and Sellers

12. Amazon statistics reveal that users are motivated first and foremost by price (82%).

(Source: Feedvisor)

This should come as no surprise, as Amazon is famous for offering plenty of discounts on a wide variety of products. Other driving factors include cheap shipping (70%) and positive reviews (57%).

13. As of 2020, an estimated 50% of Amazon sellers generated 81% to 100% of revenue from retail, Amazon facts confirm.

(Source: Oberlo, JungleScout)

Currently, there are 1.9 million active sellers on Amazon. And every year, Amazon adds more than a million new sellers to the team. In Q1 2021 alone, 283,000 sellers signed up.

While happy customers are crucial for business, happy sellers are a thing, too! Are the Amazon sellers happy and prospering?

Let’s look at their profits to find out:

14. 64% of Amazon sellers become profitable within the first year.

(Source: Oberlo, JungleScout)

While the actual profits vary considerably – only one in ten active sellers can make $100,000 in sales – early two-thirds of new sellers make good early on.

What’s more:

44% of sellers reported an improvement in their businesses in 2020. Finally, 62% of Amazon sellers see their profit steadily rising.

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Amazon Prime Statistics

15. Amazon Prime subscribers drive online purchases, with 21% shopping once a week.

(Source: Statista)

Additionally, 26% of Prime members shop once every few weeks. In contrast, only 8% of non-Prime members shop weekly, while 21% do so once every few weeks.

Key takeaway:

Prime members show a higher rate of engagement than their non-prime counterparts.

Plus, there’s a lot more of them! Check this out:

16. 65% of Amazon customers are Prime members, Amazon facts reveal.

(Source: Statista)

Were you surprised to find out that nearly two-thirds of Amazon shoppers also subscribe to Prime? Well, you shouldn’t be.

Prime promises a host of perks:

• One-day or two-day free delivery
• Early access to every sale day
• Exclusive discounts and offers
• Seamless entertainment offered on Prime Video
• Streaming of free music via Prime Music
• Access to an enormous e-library and hundreds of audiobooks in Prime reading.

17. In Q1 2021, there were 147 million Prime subscribers in the US.

(Source: Statista, Statista)

This is a gigantic leap from the 2015 figure of just 54 million.

Amazon sale days are a sensation in themselves, but Prime Day is clearly in a league of its own.

But what do customers enjoy about it?

A 2020 survey of Italian Prime members revealed that on a scale of 1 to 10, a majority of prime members rated Prime’s customer support at 8.54. The next most satisfactory feature was Prime shipping at 8.46. The extensive array of discounted products on Prime received a rating of 7.62.

18. According to Amazon statistics, Prime Day sale earnings witnessed a 91% hike between 2015 and 2020.

(Source: Statista, Statista)

And Prime Day earnings clearly reflect the growing level of customer satisfaction.

In the year it launched (2015), Prime Day generated a revenue of US$0.9 billion. By 2019, that figure had skyrocketed to US$7.16 billion. Boosted further by the pandemic, Prime Day cracked the US$10 billion mark, generating an eye-watering US10.4 billion.

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Amazon Statistics Canada

19. Amazon Marketplace CA receives around 161.3 million monthly visits.

(Source: Similar Web)

Amazon.ca is ranked 22nd among online marketplaces worldwide and has a global rank of 150. When it comes to monthly visits, 32.08 million are unique visits. Additionally, 62.23% of visits to the site are from desktops, while mobile visits account for 37.7%.

20. In 2018, Canadian sellers made Amazon sales worth over $900 million.

(Source: Amazon)

If you’re an owner of a small or medium-sized business, here’s where you will thrive.

Signing up woes? We’ve got you covered:

The Professional plan costs $29.99 per month and comes with an array of advanced selling tools. There’s also no bar on the number of products you can list under the professional plan.

The Individual plan, which costs $1.49 per sale, is typically suited for those who sell fewer than 40 products.

21. 45% of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses exported products to the US, Europe, and elsewhere in 2018.

(Source: Amazon)

Selling on Amazon.ca comes with added flexibility in terms of selling plans and exposes your inventory of millions of customers, a larger chunk of whom are unique visitors.

Here’s the deal:

300 million customers from over 180 countries visit to scan products sold by Amazon. Since Amazon has a high conversion rate, these visits turn to orders more often than not. Moreover, some of these Amazon orders are from places outside Canada, providing sellers with overseas leverage.

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How to Sell on Amazon.com from Canada

Amazon’s newest offering, the North America Unified Account, means that sellers won’t have to use separate accounts to sell from different locations. So, selling on the primary domain while in Canada is now deceptively simple!

The thing is:

As we mentioned earlier, North America represents over half of Amazon’s total customer base, according to Amazon stats. So, if you’re a Canada-based seller who’s tired of the slow rise of Amazon.ca, here are a few reasons to shift your business to Amazon.com.

To begin with:

You will have greater access to various product research, inventory, selling, and accounting tools on Amazon.com that aren’t yet available to individual sellers in the Canadian marketplace.

What’s more:

The latest Amazon statistics reveal that Prime members should be the target of every seller because their shopping behavior encourages higher spending. To get ahold of that profitable market, it’s a good idea to start selling on Amazon.com.

Last but not least:

Getting paid in US dollars by shifting from Amazon.ca is just another perk for as long as the USD remains stronger than CAD.

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Final Thoughts

So there you have it, folks! Handpicked Amazon statistics that will assuredly help you understand the impact the dynamic ecommerce giant has on our lives. With billions of customers worldwide, Amazon is a promising retail space for budding sellers and resellers.

And that’s not all:

Feature-rich products like the North America Unified Account, AWS, and FBA open up competitive markets. In turn, this provides immense growth opportunities for entrepreneurs, especially in North America. And in the coming years, Amazon is projected to be the first ecommerce giant to start earning in trillions.

Bottom line:

It’s safe to say that Amazon is here to dominate the online shopping scene for years to come. We’re excited to see the new sectors the company will look to expand to.