Amazon GMV Reached $600 Billion in 2021

$600 billion worth of goods were sold on Amazon in 2021. The total gross merchandise volume (GMV), including sales by Amazon itself and by the marketplace, doubled in three years. Most of that growth came from the marketplace.

Amazon GMV 2021

According to Marketplace Pulse estimates based on Amazon disclosures, sales by Amazon (also known as first-party sales) reached $210 billion, up 11% year-over-year, and third-party marketplace sales reached $390 billion, up 30% year-over-year.

Total worldwide GMV was $600 billion, up 22% year-over-year. It had more than doubled in three years from $277 billion in 2018. Amazon’s growth in 2021 had slowed down considerably compared to 2020 - its growth had halved. However, Amazon still grew GMV by more than $100 billion.

The third-party marketplace was responsible for over 80% of the incremental GMV. Its sales have nearly doubled in just two years - from $200 billion in 2019 to $390 billion in 2021. The marketplace has been growing faster than Amazon’s first-party sales for many years (it accounted for nearly 65% of the GMV; ten years ago, in 2011, it was 38%).

Estimated Amazon GMV

GMV estimates are crude calculations and shouldn’t be relied upon for anything but approximations of Amazon’s scale.

Amazon added more to its GMV in 2021 than Walmart and eBay each did in total worldwide e-commerce sales. In the three years it took Amazon to double its GMV, it also more than doubled its fulfillment network and added over a million employees to reach 1.6 million. Despite the issues consumers, sellers, competitors, and governments have with Amazon, it somehow keeps the flywheel spinning. All things being equal, it will reach $1 trillion GMV in less than five years.

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Juozas Kaziukėnas

Founder of Marketplace Pulse, Juozas wears multiple hats in the management of Marketplace Pulse, including writing most of the articles. Based in New York City. Advisor to other startups and entrepreneurs. Occasional speaker at conferences.

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