When it comes to online shopping, the leader in the industry is Amazon. This retail giant sells everything from toys and books to clothing and furniture. If there is something you want to buy from the web, the odds are good that Amazon is your first choice. Now is a great time to take a look at some of the statistics that show what makes Amazon one of the best.
Amazon History
Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online retailer based out of Seattle, Washington. He incorporated the company in 1994 and saw it go public three years later. During the early years of the company, it accepted payments made via checks and money orders. You could place an order online and then send in your payment. Once it verified your payment method, the company shipped out your order. Amazon now consists of different branches that offer information about online shoppers as well as handle the orders made from buyers around the world.
One thing that sets Amazon apart from other online retailers is that it allows third-party sellers to list items online. The Fulfilled by Amazon program lets sellers create accounts and ship items directly to the company. If someone buys something off the site from a third-party and uses the FBA program, Amazon will send their items for the seller. Sellers also have the option of selling items and shipping products on their own. The FBA program is popular among those who sell movies, video games and books.
Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market, Inc. and now operates all the physical locations of that grocery store chain. It also sells some of the products from those stores online. Through Kindle Direct Publishing, authors can self-publish their books online. They receive a percentage of the book’s selling price based on how much they charge. Amazon Publishing is a similar branch of the company that gives readers and buyers access to digital magazines and other products. You’ll also find e-readers, tablets and television sticks available through Amazon.
Amazon Statistics and Facts
- In 2017 alone, Amazon reported net sales of nearly $178 billion. The company’s sales figures climbed each year since the early 2010s. Over a single decade, the site reported sales of more than $140 billion and saw it sell nearly $20 billion worth of merchandise in select years.
- More than 5% of all retail dollars spent in the entire United States go to Amazon. That includes the money that shoppers spend online and in traditional retail stores.
- During the holiday sales quarter in which users shop for holiday gifts, Amazon sells more than $60 billion worth of merchandise.
- The main online competitors to Amazon include Walmart, eBay and Apple. Amazon sells more each year than those three sites combined.
- Jeff Bezos is both the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon and one of the richest men in the world.
- Amazon ships more than 5 billion products to locations around the world every year.
- Approximately 90% of all online shoppers will check prices on Amazon before they make a purchase.
- Amazon makes enough net sales every year that it would rank as one of the 150 richest countries in the world.
- Those who sign up for the FBA program report an increase in sales of 30 to 50%.
- More than 70% of the third-party sellers on Amazon also sell products on other websites.
Amazon User Stats
Though you might think that most of the people shopping on Amazon are young, just as many shoppers are over the age of 30 or even 50. Part of the company’s success relies on the fact that it offers low prices and fast shipping. There are some other great facts and stats about those users, including:
- Nearly 198 million people visit Amazon on a daily basis, which is more than the total population of people living in Russia.
- Approximately 50% of all online shoppers use the site to look for their items.
- More than half of all shoppers use Amazon to look for holiday gifts.
- Roughly 64% of all households have a subscription to Amazon Prime.
- More than 70% of its shoppers spend more than $100 but less than $500 a year on Amazon
- Around 40% of those who belong to Amazon Prime spend more than $1,000 a year.
- More than 100 million people around the world subscribe to Amazon Prime.
- Twenty-six million people use Amazon to watch Prime Video.
- Amazon shoppers spent more than 30% of their total Black Friday budgets on Amazon.
- The millennial generation spends more money on Amazon than any other age group.
- More than one million people sign up for new Amazon accounts each year.
- Around 40% of Amazon users read the reviews posted by other customers before they buy something from the site.
Amazon Devices
Amazon is more than just another online retailer because it also offers tech devices. The Amazon Fire Stick competes directly with Roku devices. It allows users to plug the device into a television and gain access to Amazon Videos and other streaming services. Amazon also makes the Alexa home device, Kindle and Fire Tables. Some of the statistics about those devices include:
- The Alexa ranks as one of the top devices ever sold on the site.
- You can sync your Alexa to more than 4,000 other products and ask it to do more than 30,000 things.
- Alexa uses language recognition and will eventually learn how to respond to the commands given by anyone in your household.
- The number of Fire and Kindle devices sold increases each year.
- Amazon users make roughly 2% of their Amazon purchases through Alexa devices.
- The first Kindle arrived on the market in November of 2007 and sold out in a few hours. This device was so popular that it took until the following April for Amazon to catch up with the user demand.
- Since 2010, Amazon reported that it sold more e-books than traditional books, many of which went to Kindle users.
- The Kindle Unlimited program costs a monthly fee and allows readers to download up to three books at a time to their devices. They can return those titles and download new ones as needed.
- In the two years from 2008 to 2010, the number of e-books sold through Amazon increased by more than 1,200%.
What About Prime Day?
As a way to increase sales, Amazon offers Prime Day. It takes place each year in July and provides shoppers with deep discounts that are not available any other time of the year. Though it originally took place over just one day, it now includes 30 hours of sales. Not only can you get discounts on items from your wishlist, but you can win free prizes too. There are some interesting facts about Amazon Prime Day.
- In 2017, Amazon Prime Day sold more than $2.4 billion worth of merchandise, which is a significant increase over 2016.
- The three biggest sales day for Amazon include Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Prime Day.
- As members get access to free shipping, a large number of people sign up for Amazon Prime on Prime Day.
- In 2020, more than half of all households in the United States had a Prime account and bought products on Prime Day.
- More than 180 million people visit the site to look for sales during this event.
- The total number of Americans who buy something on Prime Day is more than 50 million.
Amazon Prime Members
One of the top services offered by the company is Amazon Prime. This is a membership service that charges either a monthly or an annual fee. Users can save money when they pay for a year of service in advance. They receive free and fast shipping on orders and gain access to Amazon Video, which allows them to stream videos to televisions and other devices. Amazon offers exclusive series and films for members too such as “The Boys.” You can check out some of the top stats about Prime members.
- ”The Man in the High Castle” was one of the top original series produced by Amazon and saw more than eight million Americans watch it.
- More than 36 million Prime users around the world use Prime Video, with around 13 million of those users living in the United States.
- Amazon spends more than $4 billion on original content for Prime Video.
- Prime members can watch that content in more than 200 countries.
- Amazon releases some movies in theaters and saw those films gross more than $240 million.
More About Amazon
Even if you visit Amazon daily, there are still some things you might not know about the site. It sells more than $400 worth of products every day, which breaks down to sales of more than $4,700 every second. You’ll find even more facts and stats below that you might want to share at your next dinner party.
- Jeff Bezos is one of several billionaires who got his start out of a garage. Bezons worked out of a garage in Washington until Amazon got off the ground.
- Though Amazon now sells millions of products, it originally sold just books. It slowly expanded into other categories such as videotapes and DVDs before adding toys and games. Amazon now sells more items than any other store in the world.
- More than 110,000 people work for Amazon in some capacity around the world.
- Third-party sellers now represent more than 50% of all the merchandise sold on the site.
- A simple website crash can cause significant damage to Amazon. One such crash left shoppers unable to access Amazon for less than an hour and cost the company nearly $5 million.
- The renewable energy projects that Amazon launched over the years can now fully power more than 300,000 homes for an entire year.
- To help the environment, Amazon took steps to limit the number of packaging materials and boxes used, which help the company use more than 300 million fewer boxes than it did in the past.
- The number of people who use Amazon today represents a growth of more than 730% over the number who initially used the site.
- One-click buying is an idea invented by Amazon. It allows users to link their payment information and purchase items with just one click.
Amazon Wrap Up
The reason Amazon ranks as one of the more popular online shopping destinations is that the company has a commitment to its buyers. Amazon constantly looks for ways to improve its customer relations and to offer new products and services for those shoppers. That led to the company introducing the Kindle and other e-readers as well as Alexa devices, which let you get answers to any questions you might have. Alexa devices can both surf the web and place orders on the site. As the company continues releasing new products and adding new services, tt’s likely that Amazon will grow even larger in the coming years.