Amazon seller statistics 2026: 60+ data points that shape your strategy

Amazon marketplace size and growth statistics

To get you up to speed with the current size of the marketplace, here’s a recap of three of the key takeaways from its Amazon Q4 2025 earnings report:

To put the size and growth of the marketplace further into perspective, consider the following. Amazon holds 40.5% of the market share of the top retail e-commerce companies in the United States. Walmart, which holds the second biggest share, only captures 9.2% of the market.

This means that roughly 40 cents of every dollar that’s spent online in the US goes through Amazon. If there’s demand in your category, shoppers are searching for it on Amazon, whether you sell there or not.

Amazon seller statistics: Revenue and success rates

Independent sellers drive the bulk of the sales, accounting for over 60% of the sales in 2025. What’s even more impressive is that most of these independent sellers are small and medium-sized businesses.

Revenue distribution

Earnings on Amazon are uneven, so the gap between the top and the middle is wider than most sellers expect. To illustrate this point, 65% of enterprise brands and retailers make $250,000+ in monthly sales on average based on Jungle Scout’s data. However, for individual sellers and SMBs only 36% report clearing more than $10,000 in average monthly sales. In fact, 42% clear under $1,000 per month.

Success and profitability rates

The same Jungle Scout report found that about half of enterprise brands and retailers (47%) have profit margins that exceed 20%. In fact, 7% boast a margin higher than 50%, while only about 6% have a profit margin of below 20%.

However, unlike larger brands, smaller sellers often have to deal with higher per-unit costs, fulfillment fees, and advertising costs and this shows in their profit margins on Amazon. In this group, 33% report having a profit margin over 20%.

Amazon FBA statistics and fulfillment costs

FBA adoption rates

According to Jungle Scout’s data, 44% of Amazon sellers and brands prefer Amazon FBA, making it the preferred method. That said, Amazon FBM isn’t lagging far behind, with 37% listing this as their favorite method.

If you’re choosing between Amazon FBA and FBM, here’s a look at how the FBA fee structure can impact your margin:

None of this includes advertising. With PPC, you can estimate that the total cost of selling on Amazon will reach 40% to 50% of gross revenue.

Two fees do most of the damage. Storage can triple in the fourth quarter, so a seller still holding excess stock in October pays that rate through the busiest months of the year.

Plus, the 2026 Amazon FBA fee increases aren’t just a one-time event. Amazon has raised fees every year for several years running.

You can’t negotiate any of these fees, but you can change for what Amazon charges you. Smaller packages move you into a cheaper size tier, and consolidating shipments cuts placement fees.

Planning inventory ahead keeps stock moving before the aged surcharges start at 181 days. By cutting only two percentage points off your fees, you keep $20,000 on every $1 million in revenue.

Amazon advertising statistics

Amazon Ads generated $19.8 billion revenue in Q2 2026, a year-over-year increase of 26%. This growth is partly driven by AI tools and cost per clicks (CPCs) remaining very competitive.

According to Jungle Scout, most businesses pay between $1 and $3 per click. The CPC is blended, and in categories like baby, beauty, and food, the clicks run past $2.00, according to Jungle Scout’s Amazon Benchmark Report 2026. For example, a highly competitive segment like shaving has an average CPC of as high as $4.08.

Based on agency estimates, advertising cost of sales (ACoS) typically runs 25% to 30% across different categories. However, for brands that are already well-established, the more useful benchmark is total advertising cost of sales (TACoS), which should be between 10% and 15%.

The advertising profitability challenge

To illustrate, impact of ad costs on your profit margins, take a $30 product as an example.

The referral fee, FBA fulfillment, and your cost of goods come to $17.50, leaving you with $12.50. At a 25% ACoS, you spend $7.50 on ads, which leaves $5.00 a unit.

Now, let ACoS slip to 35%. Ad spend climbs to $10.50 and your $5.00 drops to $2.00. At 3,000 units a month, this drift costs you $108,000 over a year.

This is why you need to track TACoS alongside ACoS.

A rising ACoS is fine if TACoS is steady, because the increase means the ads are lifting the organic sales as well. A rising TACoS means you're paying for sales you used to get for free.

Amazon conversion and traffic statistics

Amazon typically converts at 8% to 15%, while a typical e-commerce site converts at about 1% to 3%. This gap is the whole argument for why Amazon is better for selling.

This means 5,000 views on an Amazon listing converting at 12% produces 600 sales, while the same traffic on your own e-commerce website at 2.5% produces only 125.

Why Amazon converts higher than your website

Nobody lands on Amazon just to browse for inspiration. Shoppers that arrive there have already decided to buy, and they’re working out which product to choose. Payment details are saved, the reviews sit on the page, the delivery date is visible, and returns seem painless.

Your website has to earn all of that before anyone reaches the cart.

This advantage comes with conditions, though. According to Nova’s data, about 82% of sales go through the Buy Box (aka Featured Offer). So, if you lose it, your listing still gets the traffic, but it won’t earn the sale.

Amazon returns and refund statistics

Return rates of online sales is estimated at 19.3% based on the National Retail Federation’s 2025 Retail Returns Landscape (with roughly 9% of returns involving fraud).  However, it can climb to 30% in apparel, which erodes seller margins by 3% to 5%.

The hidden cost of returns

The refund is the smallest part of the real cost. You also need to pay for return processing, stock that comes back unsellable, and lost ranking momentum.

For apparel, a 20% gross margin against a 25% return rate is a SKU that breaks even at best. Most of the fix happens before an order is even shipped. Amazon gives you a reason code for every return that happens, and each one has a different fix.

For example:

• “Not as described” means your copy or images are setting the wrong expectation.
• “Defective” means that there’s a quality problem with your supplier.
• “No longer needed” usually comes down to delivery speed or an impulse purchase.

Every month it’s important to pull the report and focus on improving the highest-volume code first. Every point off your return rate goes directly to your profit.

Emerging trends shaping Amazon in 2026

Alexa for shopping and the shift to natural language discovery

In May 2026, Amazon retired the Rufus assistant and created Alexa, the assistant for shopping, which now sits in the main search bar instead of a side panel. It’s free to use, if you’re a registered US shopper, giving it a wider reach than Rufus ever had.

The shift Rufus started is the part that truly matters. Instead of typing “wireless earbuds under $50", a shopper now asks which earbuds stay in place while running and still have decent bass. The assistant delivers the answer, which is built using your:

• Bullet points (which it reads for specific claims instead of keywords)
• A+ Content (specifically comparison charts and use cases)
• Questions and Answers (which it treats as direct answers to real shopper questions)
• Reviews (which it uses to test whether your claims hold up)

So, your listing optimization means something different now. A page can be fully optimized and still lose the recommendation because the assistant checks the claims against what buyers say.

This is why you should read your bullets and reviews together. If buyers are praising something that your page doesn’t mention, add it.

Same-day and next-day delivery expansion

In 2025, Amazon shipped more than 13 billion items on the same day or the next day in over 2,300 cities. This works out to a growth of 70%.

Now, speed is what feeds both the search ranking and Buy Box eligibility, and this factor makes inventory placement a visibility decision instead of purely a logistical one.

Splitting shipments across more fulfillment centers costs more upfront and usually pays for itself in Buy Box share. If the Buy Box ownership dips in one region, check your stock nearby first.

If you’re currently generating seven or eight figures in e-commerce and you want a team that manages your account with the precision it demands, get a free marketing plan from Olifant Digital. We’ll look at your account, find your biggest constraint, and build a plan to fix it.

Frequently asked questions

Is it too late to start selling on Amazon in 2026?

No, it’s not. However, the marketplace rewards different behavior than it did five years ago. The seller base has shrunk by a third since 2021, while the traffic kept climbing. These changes caused the traffic per active seller to increase up to 31%. 

Fewer competitors are chasing the same demand, but the bar has changed. Casual listings no longer survive, and the sellers that gain momentum are those that treat Amazon as a managed channel with daily attention to ads, inventory, and account health. 

That is more work than brands can absorb in-house, which is why many of them hand the channel to an agency like Olifant Digital.

Why are sellers leaving Amazon?

Sellers leave Amazon mostly because of the high costs. Fees absorb 30% to 35% of the revenue before the advertising and reach 40% to 50% once PPC costs are included.

Should I use FBA or FBM?

For most sellers, FBA is the preferred method. The advantage isn’t the warehousing, but the Prime Badge, Buy Box preference, and delivery speed that Amazon rewards in ranking. FBM is still a better choice for oversized items and slow-moving products.

What net margin should I target on Amazon?

You should have at least 15% after fees, advertising, and fulfillment. Anything below that leaves no room for a fee increase or jump in ad costs, and both of these usually happen every year.