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

Amazon marketplace size and growth statistics

Every headline metric in the table reached a record high in 2025.

The 62% figure is really worth pausing on. Two of every three units sold on Amazon come from independent sellers, which is an all-time high. Amazon needs those sellers to fill its catalog, and this is why it keeps building tools, warehouses, and ad products aimed at them.

More than a third of every dollar that is 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. 

How many sellers are on Amazon?

There are roughly 9.7 million registered seller accounts on Amazon, but only 1.9 million of them are actually doing active selling.

Seller count and registration trends

In 2021, the active count peaked at 2.4 million, but ever since, it's been falling down every year. 

The new registrations came in at 165,000 last year, which marked the all-time lowest in a decade. What is more important is that the vast majority of accounts that opened before 2019 have gone quiet.

Seller demographics

There is an increasing number of China-based accounts that register each year. Last year nearly 6 in 10 registrations were from China, reversing a decade in which most new sellers were American. In a crowded category, you end up competing against shorter supply chains and lower landed costs than yours.

The great compression

Amazon traffic and sales keep climbing, but seller numbers are falling. This makes the demand split between fewer accounts. Traffic per active seller is up roughly a third since 2021. Fewer junk listings clutter the results, so a properly built page truly stands out.

Around 7 in 10 sellers still operate in one marketplace. If you have the US running well, then Canada, the UK, Germany, and Japan sit right there largely untouched.

Amazon seller statistics: Revenue and success rates

Revenue distribution

Earnings on Amazon are uneven, so the gap between the top and the middle is wider than most sellers expect.

• 64% of the sellers make less than $100,000 a year
• More than 100,000 sellers now clear $1 million a year, up from 60,000 sellers in 2021. 
• The top 1% takes 27% of the marketplace revenue, and the top 2% takes more than half.

The average US seller makes more than $375,000 a year, and the median sits below that. Both numbers are not so relevant as the movement behind them. Million-dollar sellers grew by two thirds since 2021, while the total seller count fell by a third.

Success and profitability rates

Around 58% of the sellers reach profitability within 12 months. This means 42% do not, and 22% never get there at all. Around 46% land on margins that sit between 11% and 25%, and roughly 35% have dealt with an account suspension.

The suspension figure deserves a pause. Most start as something visible, such as a policy breach, an IP complaint, a sliding metric, or a listing edit that Amazon flags, and nobody catches these issues during a monthly check-in. 

And if your margin after the fees, ads, and fulfillment is under 15%, there is no campaign tuning that can rescue that SKU. This is why you need to fix the pricing or the product first.

Amazon FBA statistics and fulfillment costs

FBA adoption rates

78% of sellers and 86% of top sellers prefer FBA, and these sellers are 5.2 times more likely to hit $100,000 in their first year. This gap is not really about warehousing, but it’s more the Prime Badge, the Buy Box preference, and the delivery speed that Amazon now rewards in ranking.

FBA fee structure

None of that includes advertising. With PPC, the total cost of selling on Amazon reaches 40% to 50% of gross revenue.

Two fees do most of the damage. Storage triples in the fourth quarter, so a seller still holding excess stock in October pays that rate through the busiest months of the year. And the 2026 increases are not just a one-time event. Amazon has raised fees every year for several years running.

You cannot negotiate any of these fees, but you can change what Amazon charges you for. 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. Cut two percentage points off your fees, and you keep $20,000 on every $1 million in revenue.

Amazon advertising statistics

Amazon’s ad revenue grew by 22% a year and reached $68.6 billion. That growth is a result of two places: more sellers advertising on the platform and each paying more per click.

ACoS runs 25% to 30% across different categories, and Sponsored Products clicks cost between $0.95 and $1.20. For brands that are already well-established, the more useful benchmark is TACoS, which should be between 10% and 15%. 

Sponsored Products are what absorb around 78% of the ad spend, and roughly two thirds of sellers have raised their prices so they can cover the rising ad costs and FBA costs. 

The CPC is blended, and in categories like supplements, electronics, and beauty, the clicks run past $2.00. In niches that are quieter, you can buy them under $0.50.

The advertising profitability challenge

Take a $30 product as an example. The referral fee, FBA fulfillment, and your cost of goods come to $17.50, and that leaves you $12.50 to work with. 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 three thousand units a month, that drift costs you $108,000 over a year. So 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 converts at 10% to 15%, while a typical e-commerce site converts at 2% to 3%. This gap is the whole argument for why Amazon is better for selling. Five thousand views on an Amazon listing 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 are 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. About 82% of sales go through the Buy Box, so if you lose it, your listing still gets the traffic, but it won’t earn the sale. Since more than 65% of the traffic comes from mobile devices, your main image has to work at thumbnail size. 

That’s why you need to open your listing on a phone and scroll it the way a customer would, because that is the version most people see.

Amazon returns and refund statistics

Return rates run 5% to 15% on average and climb to 25% to 30% in apparel, which erodes seller margins by 3% to 5%. Roughly 9% of returns involve fraud.

The hidden cost of returns

The refund is the smallest part of the real cost. You also need to pay for return processing, lose stock that comes back unsellable, lose ranking momentum, and also carry extra inventory for units that are in transit. 

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 something different. 

• “Not as described” means your copy or images are setting the wrong expectation.
• “Defective” means that there is 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 work 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 is free to use it if you are a registered US shopper, so its reach is wider than Rufus ever had.

The shift Rufus started is a 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 from four parts of your page:

• Bullet points, which it reads for specific claims instead of keywords
• A+ Content, where comparison charts and use cases give it context
• 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.

That’s 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, the same-day volume grew 70%. Amazon shipped more than 13 billion items on the same day or the next day in over 2,300 cities. 

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

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 the PPC is included. 

Another 5% to 10% of the increases are expected in 2026, and roughly two thirds of sellers have already raised their prices to absorb rising ad and fulfillment costs. For those sellers who are running thin margins on low-priced items, the arithmetic stops working before the volume does.

Should I use FBA or FBM?

For most sellers, FBA is the preferred method. The advantage is not the warehousing, but it’s the Prime Badge, the Buy Box preference, and the delivery speed that Amazon rewards in ranking. FBM is still a better choice for the oversized items, slow movers, and products where the storage fees would eat the margin.

What net margin should I target on Amazon?

You should have at least 15% after the fees, advertising, and fulfillment. Anything below that leaves no room for a fee increase or a jump in ad costs, and both of these happen every year. Most sellers land between 11% and 25%, so 15% is a floor rather than a stretch. 

Conclusion

The 2026 picture is consistent across every dataset. The marketplace gets bigger while the seller count becomes smaller. The revenue is increasing for brands that run the channel properly.

If you are currently doing 7 or 8 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 will look at your account, find your biggest constraint, and build a plan to fix it.