Amazon Enjoys Record-Setting Year for Marketplace Sellers

More than a billion units worldwide were ordered from Marketplace Sellers, including local businesses of all sizes, on Amazon during 2013

The number of active Marketplace Sellers using the Fulfillment by Amazon service grew more than 65 percent year-over-year worldwide

SEATTLE--()--(NASDAQ:AMZN) - Amazon today announced a record-setting year for Marketplace Sellers with businesses of all sizes selling on Amazon. In 2013, Marketplace Sellers on Amazon sold more than a billion units worldwide, cumulatively worth tens of billions of dollars. Marketplace Sellers around the world also continued rapid adoption of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a service that Marketplace Sellers can choose to have Amazon ship their products directly to customers and offer Amazon Prime benefits, FREE Shipping, simple exporting to customers around the world, easy returns for orders placed on Amazon and great customer service. The number of active Marketplace Sellers using the FBA service grew more than 65 percent year-over-year worldwide.

The Amazon Marketplace, which consists of more than 2 million Marketplace Sellers of all sizes worldwide, experienced record growth during the busy holiday selling season. On Cyber Monday, more than 13 million units were ordered worldwide from Marketplace Sellers on Amazon, growing the total units ordered by over 50 percent year-over-year.

“It has been an incredible year for Marketplace Sellers including popular brands and businesses of all sizes selling on Amazon. Our customers have told us they appreciate the hundreds of millions of products listed by Marketplace Sellers that range from all types of apparel to a vast selection of electronics items,” said Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace. “Our goal every day is to make selling on Amazon as easy as possible. Fulfillment by Amazon is a wonderful service as it gives all Marketplace Sellers the option of warehousing their inventory in our fulfillment center network. It has been a game changer for sellers because their items become eligible for Prime benefits, which drives their sales and benefits consumers with additional Prime selection.”

“Amazon gave us an opportunity to offer an incredible holiday deal on Cyber Monday and we hit it out of the park,” said Eli Silver Sakkal, president of Amazing Deals Online, an electronics retailer based in New Jersey. “We experienced an unprecedented 5,000 percent sales growth spike on an item we listed with an attractive holiday deal price. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true! We sold more than $1,000,000 in product in a single day. Being a Marketplace Seller on Amazon has allowed us to benefit from the technical infrastructure they’ve built up over the years while reaching millions of loyal customers worldwide for a modest cost to us. We have enjoyed an 80 percent increase in units sold on Amazon this holiday season without having to invest a penny in our own infrastructure. Amazon by far has been our most successful sales channel this holiday selling season.”

Holiday Growth Worldwide for Marketplace Sellers on Amazon

  • In 2013, more than a billion units worldwide were ordered on Amazon from Marketplace Sellers with businesses of all sizes.
  • The number of active Marketplace Sellers using the FBA service grew more than 65 percent year-over-year worldwide during 2013.
  • FBA shipped more units worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2013 than the total number of FBA units combined in all of 2009 and 2010.
  • The number of FBA units shipped worldwide grew more than 50 percent year-over-year during the 2013 holiday season.
  • On Cyber Monday, more than 13 million units were ordered worldwide from Marketplace Sellers on Amazon.
  • On Cyber Monday, units ordered from Marketplace Sellers on Amazon grew more than 50 percent year-over-year worldwide.
  • On Cyber Monday, the number of businesses using Amazon Payments to allow Amazon customers to purchase on sellers’ own websites grew more than 50 percent year-over-year worldwide.
  • Apparel is a fast growing category for Marketplace Sellers on Amazon. The number of FBA units shipped by Amazon doubled in size from 2012 to 2013.

Worldwide Holiday Fun Facts for Marketplace Sellers on Amazon:

  • Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon shipped items to customers in more than 185 countries, and over 480,000 cities.
  • Marketplace Sellers on Amazon from 89 different countries fulfilled orders to U.S. customers using the Fulfillment by Amazon service.
  • Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon sold items of nearly every size – from a travel size bottle of skin lotion to a set of 14’ high wrought iron gates – using the Fulfillment by Amazon service.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough physical CDs to hold a concert that would last over 340 years.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough toys to give a toy to each child under the age of 6 in the EU.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough different products that one of each, placed end to end, would reach from Toronto to London to Casablanca.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough shoes to stretch heel to toe from Earth to the Hubble Telescope over 5 times.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough Rainbow Looms that the bands can stretch around the circumference of Earth.
  • Customers purchased from Marketplace Sellers worldwide on Amazon enough remote control helicopters to sustain flight without recharging for the next 3 years.

“We experienced explosive sales growth for items listed on Amazon, 10x sales increases in some cases, when offering attractive holiday deals. For many items, all available inventory was sold out within an hour of the deal posting! We are already making selling on Amazon a core component of our marketing and sales planning for holiday 2014 and beyond,” said Mike Mitchell, COO for MMP Living, a home goods and toy retailer based in Colorado. “By leveraging Amazon’s FBA program we were able to focus on sourcing and offering products of the highest quality, knowing that Amazon's world-class infrastructure will handle getting our products out to customers quickly. With the focus always on the customer coupled with the fast Prime Shipping options, Amazon is second to none.”

“Our sales growth selling on Amazon this holiday season has been 70 percent year-over-year, and for an item that we offered a great promotional deal on the sales grew as much as 500 percent. Providing incredible pricing and deals on Amazon helps us attract new customers and creates a halo effect for our items that lasts well after a promotion,” said Tech Armor co-founders Joseph Jaconi and Eric Tong, an electronics accessories manufacturer based in the Los Angeles area. “Amazon is an important sales channel for our business during the holiday season because it has one of the largest customer bases in the world and with the FBA program, customers tell us they appreciate the fast shipping options available this busy time of year. The FBA program allows us to fulfill a mass volume of orders we just could not fulfill ourselves. Our confidence in the FBA program has allowed us to focus our efforts on promotions and other areas of our business such as maintaining the inventory levels to support strong holiday demand.”

Businesses interested in selling on Amazon, the Fulfillment by Amazon service and Amazon Payments can visit us at http://services.amazon.com.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, www.amazon.com.mx, and www.amazon.com.au. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Contacts

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr

Release Summary

More than a billion units worldwide were ordered from Marketplace Sellers, including local businesses of all sizes, on Amazon during 2013

Contacts

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr