Amazon has come a long way since it launched in 1995. The same can be said for founder Jeff Bezos. With a $250,000 investment from his parents, Bezos opened an online bookstore from the garage of his rented house. Though the small company lacked resources, it didn’t lack vision. Soon, Amazon had transformed itself into one of the world’s biggest online retail stores.
The company’s growth has been explosive to say the least, so it’s safe to say it has successfully achieved its mission to be the most customer-centric company on earth, and the biggest “everything store” in the world.
Here are 27 Amazon statistics that prove that visionary leadership can be a game-changer.
Amazon wasn’t meant to be Amazon. Bezos wanted to name the company Cadabra since it sounded magical. However, his lawyer advised against it since it sounded too similar to Cadaver, which means corpse. The second name Jeff favored was Relentless, but that also didn’t pan out, so he finally settled on Amazon, naming the company after the second-longest but most voluminous river in the world.
It turned out to be a pretty powerful – and apt – name for the company, as Amazon stats indicate that the company is dominating the eCommerce industry globally.
(Business Insider)
Back in the day, suppliers had a rule that retailers could only order a minimum of 10 books at a time. Had Bezos followed that, he would have had a massive inventory and not enough sales, and the company could have gone bankrupt. Instead, he ordered one book that he needed and nine copies of an unavailable book about lichen.
(Oberlo)
Within the first month of operation, Amazon saw booming growth. The company was able to generate $20,000 per week in terms of sales within 30 days. By the end of the first month, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and across 46 countries.
(Business Insider)
The company’s exponential growth meant longer working hours for employees. The Christmas season of 1998 was particularly challenging – employees brought in their families to help and even slept in their cars. The increase in the Amazon customer base during seasonal holidays is why the company hires many seasonal workers.
(Fundable)
Amazon started with a $1 million investment from more than 20 people. The company was able to get $8 million in investments from Kleiner Perkins in 1995 and used it to expand and go public the following year. So far the company has invested $160 billion into the US economy.
(Fundable)
In 1998, Amazon acquired three companies, including bookpages.co.uk, which later became known as Amazon UK. Through acquisitions, the company suppressed rivals for the Kindle (Stanza) and managed to expand into other countries, including China, via the acquisition of Joyo.com.
Two years after the company went public, Bezos was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” because of his contribution towards the popularization of online shopping.
(Statista)
The company generated more than $11.59 billion in profit in 2019 after its revenue grew by $47 billion in one year. The total revenue generated by the company in 2018 was $232.9 billion.
(Market.us)
Amazon sales statistics for 2020 already indicate a 26% increase in sales compared to last year’s. The company collected $75.47 million. This massive revenue generation is made possible by the company’s global reach, which also earns its recognition as one of the most valuable brands internationally.
(Market.us)
Amazon’s consumers are spread globally, but its major revenue share lies with its North American consumer base. The international segment from other countries represents only 26% of the Amazon retail market share.
(Statista) (Oberlo)
In September 2019, more than 150.60 million users accessed Amazon’s mobile app. Amazon ranked fifth in the most popular multi-platform websites in April 2020. With more than 208 million unique visitors in April alone, the company is definitely leading the online retail market.
(Repricerexpress)
The North American market is where the majority of Amazon revenue generation takes place. In 2018, spending on Amazon made up almost 50% of overall US online retail spending and 5% of overall US retail sales.
(Geekwire)
In the first quarter of 2019, AWS saw a 35% increase in revenue compared to 2018. Though the growth rate was lower than what experts predicted, it was still substantial enough to be commended. In fact, revenue from AWS accounted for 13% of Amazon’s overall revenue in Q1 2019.
(Statista)
Referrals only account for 5.54% of overall Amazon desktop traffic. The company generates more than enough traction to bring in 56.47% of its users through direct traffic. The company is able to generate more than 200 million unique visitors every month.
Amazon launched the Amazon Prime network in 2007, which helped it expand the Amazon eCommerce market share. The service offers unlimited free deliveries for over a million products to its subscribers. What sets this service apart is the one-day delivery/express 24-hour shipping it offers to customers.
(Statista) (Market.Us)
As of December 2019, the majority of Amazon’s customers are also Amazon Prime members. The company now has more than 100 million paid Prime members globally. Survey results indicate that fast and free shipping are the biggest motivators for buyers to use Prime services.
(Market.Us)
Amazon Prime has seen phenomenal growth in the past few years. Around one in every three Americans claim to have a Prime subscription. The company’s revenue from this source rose from $0.9 billion in 2015 to over $7 billion in 2019 as per Amazon Prime statistics.
(Statista)
There are more than 56 million Prime members in the United States alone. The United Kingdom has 7 million, Japan 6 million, India 5 million, Germany 4 million, Canada 2 million, and other countries combined have 35 million.
(Statista)
Amazon Prime offers fast, free delivery, as well as a lot of exclusive deals to its customers, including offers on groceries, electronics, and Prime entertainment. The average Amazon user spends about $600 per year across all Amazon platforms. According to Amazon statistics, Prime members spend more than double that amount.
(Statista)
In 2019, 13.5% of Amazon Prime visitors made a purchase through the site daily. The service saw a 16% increase in conversion rates from 2018. Prime drives conversions on other Amazon platforms as well.
(Oberlo)
The company recently began providing free shipping on Amazon Fresh for all Prime members. The service would otherwise cost $14.99 more. Such incentives partially fuel the rise in Amazon sales statistics.
Amazon aims to be the most customer-centric online retail store and focuses on customer obsession rather than worrying about competitors. The following consumer trends highlight the trust level customers have in the company.
(Oberlo)
Statistics indicate that the company owns the majority of the US eCommerce industry. A survey by Feedvisor in 2019 found that consumers place a high level of trust in Amazon. Around 98% of regular Amazon buyers are drawn to the company over its competitors because of its reliability.
(Statista)
According to a report by Statista on Amazon product sales statistics, the majority of Amazon sales come from electronic items. Apparel, jewelry, footwear, and home and kitchen goods follow in terms of popularity.
(Statista) (Marketing Land)
The majority of US Amazon users claim to begin their online searches directly on the website. Only 20% of regular US Amazon shoppers look for a product via search engines, and a meager 4% go directly to the product/brand website. In fact, nine out of 10 buyers claim to crosscheck market prices with Amazon.
(Statista)
Almost 80% of online shoppers state that fast and free shipping is the main reason they shop on the platform, Amazon statistics point out. Other reasons include broad selection, easy returns, Prime membership, and positive digital shopping experiences.
(Repricerexpress)
The Amazon Echo connects to the cloud-based “Alexa” service, which has more than 30,000 skills, can control home appliances, play music, and carry out a wide variety of tasks and orders. It can even make purchases, but only 2% of users use the device to buy things online.
Amazon seller statistics show that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of small and mid-size businesses use Amazon as their selling platform of choice.
(Amazon Impact Report)
Ten years ago, Amazon stores accounted for only 30% of the company’s overall sales. By the end of 2019, they accounted for 58% of total sales made by the retail site globally.
(Amazon Impact Report)
Third-party sales grew from $0.1 billion in 1999 to $160 billion in 2018. In 2019, third-party sales accounted for a little more than half of overall Amazon sales. How many products does Amazon sell is a common question. If SMBs sell around 4,000 items per minute, then Amazon sells around 8,000 per minute and around 480,000 per hour.
(Amazon Impact Report)
In 2018, SMBs that operate within Amazon’s ecosystem created 1.6 million jobs worldwide. The company’s favorable policies and business loan provisions fueled growth. In 2018 alone, Amazon lent SMBs more than $1 billion to promote their businesses.
(Repricerexpress)
The company reported having 200,000 sellers in 2018. In the company’s 2019 impact report, it noted a 12% increase in the number of sellers. The platform now has 225,000 as of December 2019, according to Amazon seller statistics.
Very few companies have seen growth as explosive and steady as Amazon’s. From starting as an online bookstore to becoming one of the biggest online retail stores operating in more than 130 countries, Amazon’s journey is filled with monumental achievements.
The 2019 year-end statistics depict the Amazon market share to be far higher than that of other online retailers. The company dominates the North American market, holding over 45% of the overall US eCommerce market.
Amazon is also a major market player in other countries, including the UK, India, Canada, and Germany. The company plays an active role in the development and growth of small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Retailers from over 130 countries use Amazon to sell their products worldwide, and with the loans the company provides, they can even expand their operations.
The presence of SMBs on Amazon has allowed the company greater access and increased the Amazon eCommerce market share. The company is also injecting money into technological innovation, and products like the Amazon Echo are also major hits. Its reputation as one of the most trusted and reliable eCommerce companies has helped it garner customer favorability and establish its dominant position in the market.
In the first quarter of 2019, Amazon AWS sales came close to hitting the $9 billion mark. Revenue from AWS accounted for 13% of Amazon’s overall revenue in the first quarter of 2019. The web service showed a 35% revenue increase from 2018, which was slower than the expected rate of 46% according to Amazon sales data.
The net revenue for Amazon at the end of 2019 amounted to $280.5 billion. The company has seen massive growth in terms of revenue generation. At the end of 2017, Amazon’s total revenue amounted to $177.86 billion, which grew to $232.8 billion by the end of 2018.
The majority of Amazon revenue comes through sales of electronic items. According to Amazon product statistics, electronic items account for 44% of the company’s total revenue, followed by apparel, jewelry, footwear, and home goods.
Though the growth has been steady for Amazon in the past few years, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The company belongs to a list of five big companies that didn’t make a profit for more than five years.
When Amazon first went public in 1997, it wasn’t making a profit. The company first reported a profit of $5 million at the start of 2001. The growth has been steady since and made $11.59 billion in profit in 2019 according to Amazon statistics.
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