Since the last time we looked at Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) usage among marketplace sellers in January, it has grown in all countries. Just like last time, we are looking at the Top 10,000 sellers only, because we feel it best represents the market. There are many more sellers in all marketplaces, but the Top 10,000 sellers represent majority of third-party sales.
| Country | FBA Sellers in Top 10,000 |
|---|---|
| Amazon USA | 58% |
| Amazon Spain | 49% |
| Amazon Italy | 47% |
| Amazon Japan | 41% |
| Amazon France | 41% |
| Amazon Canada | 38% |
| Amazon UK | 33% |
| Amazon Germany | 33% |
| Amazon India | 23% |
To crosscheck our research, we looked at Amazon’s publicly released figures. At the end of last year Amazon had this to share about the FBA service:
“Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) delivered more than two billion units on behalf of sellers in 2016, and the number of active sellers using FBA grew more than 70%. Using the FBA service, Amazon sellers from more than 130 countries fulfilled orders to customers in 185 countries.”
Amazon shipped one billion units through FBA in 2015, so the FBA service reach and scale has doubled in just one year. The number of active sellers using FBA grew the most based on Amazon’s reported figures, up from the slower growth year in 2015.
Amazon also added that FBA units as a percent of total third-party units has reached 55 percent:
“In the fourth quarter, FBA units represented more than 55% of total third-party units.”
This figure has grown from 40 percent in 2014, to 50 percent in 2015, and now 55 percent in 2016. The company doesn’t disclose any more details beyond that.
Based on our research we didn’t see much growth among top sellers in the US - it only went up by one point to 58 percent. This can be explained by already high FBA penetration, and the stability of the market.
However all European markets have grown considerably, by 3 to 5 percentage points. We think there is a lot of interest from foreign sellers to sell there, both from China and from the US, so they are pushing the FBA usage.
World wide the growth of Prime memberships is resulting in FBA usage growth. There are some categories left which still work better when merchant fulfilled (used books for example), but long-term Amazon wants to see only Prime-eligible products. We think the pressure for sellers to use FBA will continue to rise.
