Jeffrey Bezos, CEO of Amazon, yesterday shared the annual letter to share owners where he has shown the share of physical gross merchandise sales sold on Amazon by independent third-party sellers, a percentage that reached 58% in 2018.
Here the numbers:
Year
3rd Party Sellers share
1999
3%
2000
3%
2001
6%
2002
17%
2003
22%
2004
25%
2005
28%
2006
28%
2007
29%
2008
30%
2009
31%
2010
34%
2011
38%
2012
42%
2013
46%
2014
49%
2015
51%
2016
54%
2017
56%
2018
58%
Jeff Bezos says independent third-party sellers are mostly small- and medium-sized businesses that are "kicking Amazon's first-party butt. Badly"
First-party business has grown from $1.6 billion in 1999 to $117 billion in 2018. In that same time, third-party sales have grown from $0.1 billion to $160 billion.
Amazon compares it's business to eBay and says that third-party sellers were able to grow with Amazon due to the tools Amazon provides: helping sellers manage inventory, process payments, track shipments, create reports, and sell across borders.
This month Amazon announced the introduction of a minimum sales fee in Europe and changes on seller fees.