Amazon Statistics and Facts - Company Growth, User Trends, and More

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.

Important Amazon Statistics for 2024 - Editor's Choice

• By the end of its first month, Amazon had sold books to all 50 states in the US and 46 countries, and was earning $20,000 per sales.
• The company went public in 1997 and acquired 44 companies in the ensuing 15 years.
• Amazon generates 61% of its sales through the North American market, and the company holds 45% of that region’s eCommerce market share.
• More than 50% of traffic to Amazon is direct or organic traffic. Only 5% of users visit the site via referrals.
• Amazon Prime demographics indicate millenials make up the majority of Prime users, and Prime users make up 65% of overall Amazon users.
• 66% of online users begin their search on Amazon, and 82% claim it is the most important online retail store.
• Amazon lent over $1 billion USD to small and medium-sized businesses in 2019 to fuel their growth.

Early Days and Initial Growth

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 numbers indicate that the company is dominating the eCommerce industry globally.

Order 10 books and pay for one – The loophole that saved Amazon from bankruptcy.

(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.

The company generated $20,000 per week in sales in its first month.

(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.

Amazon has, at times, made its employees work 60-hour weeks.

(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.

In 1997, Amazon became a public limited company with a share value of $18 per share.

(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.

Amazon acquired 44 companies between 1998 and 2013.

(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.

Amazon Revenue, Sales, and More

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.

Amazon’s net sales for 2019 amounted to $280.5 billion.

(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.

During the first quarter of 2020, Amazon saw a 26% net increase in sales

(Market.us)

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.

The North American market holds 61% of Amazon’s total customer market share.

(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.

Amazon had more than 208 million unique visitors in April 2020 alone.

(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.

Amazon controls over 45% of the US eCommerce market share.

(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.

Sales from Amazon Web Services amount to 13% of overall 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.

56.47% of traffic to Amazon is direct traffic.

(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 Prime Data

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.

65% of Amazon users are now Amazon Prime members.

(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.

Global Amazon Prime sales for 2019 amounted to $7.16 billion.

(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 statistics.

There are more than 150 million paying Amazon Prime members globally.

(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.

Prime users spend an average of $1,400 on the service per year.

(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. Prime members spend more than double that amount.

Amazon Prime has a conversion rate of 13.5%.

(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.

20% of Amazon Prime shoppers purchase from the platform a few times a week.

(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.

Consumer Trends

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.

89% of surveyed buyers are more likely to buy from Amazon than any other site.

(Oberlo)

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.

44% of surveyed users have purchased electronics through Amazon.

(Statista)

According to a report by Statista, the majority of Amazon sales come from electronic items. Apparel, jewelry, footwear, and home and kitchen goods follow in terms of popularity.

66% of online shoppers claim to begin their online searches on Amazon.

(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.

82% of Amazon buyers claim the website is an important shopping platform.

(Statista)

Almost 80% of online shoppers state that fast and free shipping is the main reason they shop on the platform. Other reasons include broad selection, easy returns, Prime membership, and positive digital shopping experiences.

50 million Amazon Echos have been sold since the product’s introduction in 2015.

(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.

Small Business Sales

Amazon seller numbers show that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of small and mid-size businesses use Amazon as their selling platform of choice.

More than 1.9 million content creators, businesses, and sellers are using Amazon as of December 2019.

(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.

Small and medium-sized businesses sell more than 4,000 items per minute.

(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.

SMBs using Amazon created 1.6 million jobs worldwide in 2018.

(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.

Amazon reported 225,000 active sellers in 2019.

(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.

In Conclusion

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 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.