Amazon Marketplace accounts for 25% of total US e-commerce spending

According to eMarketer data, Amazon accounted for 41.4% of total US e-commerce sales in 2021. Since Amazon Marketplace sales account for at least 60% of Amazon's GMV, Amazon Marketplace's share of total US e-commerce sales has reached 25%.

Although Amazon’s market share as a retailer is only 17% , in theory , Amazon would be the largest online retailer even without Amazon Marketplace .

Amazon’s closest competitor , Walmart, is less than half its size. It would take Walmart and the next five retailers combined to reach Amazon’s size.

eBay has been losing market share in recent years , and Walmart and Target operate in marketplaces that are orders of magnitude smaller than Amazon , which may already account for as much as 90% of total sales across all marketplaces .

Since Shopify is not a retailer or marketplace , it is not included in the ranking list . However, if all Shopify merchants were considered one retailer, it would be the third largest retailer in the United States with a market share of about 10% .

The 25% market share is a recognition of Amazon's marketplace's position in e-commerce , with millions of businesses selling through the Amazon platform rather than directly online. This is the part of e-commerce that most consumers are not used to, but it is undeniable that it accounts for the largest market share.

However, despite the multitude of platform companies, Amazon is the only one who makes the decisions . For example, when Amazon introduced advertising as an option , it gradually became a requirement over time because as some sellers opted in, other sellers had no choice but to follow suit .

In response, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that Amazon Marketplace is part of the flywheel that serves customers . Trying to separate advertising from third parties and retail is impossible and ineffective.

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