Amazon’s third-party seller services brought in $172.2B in 2025 and $46.8B in Q2 2026 (+16%). First-party online store sales were $269.3B and $70.4B (+15%).
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
Key figures, at a glance
Amazon: Online stores (first party) vs Third-party seller services, by quarter
Since the late 1990s Amazon started to enable third-party stores to sell on the platform. This strategy enabled Amazon to improve the variety, reduce prices and further expand into more categories.
Online stores are still Amazon's biggest line, but ads grew 22% to $69B in 2025. Source: Amazonquarterly earnings releases (Form 8-K, SEC EDGAR); full-year = sum of four quarters (ties to Form 10-K). Growth calculated. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Company explainer · Amazon, explained
A 3-minute explainer of Amazon's business model and latest numbers, built from its SEC filings. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Amazonโs mission is to be Earthโs most customer-centric company. Among the customers weโre focused on are small businesses and entrepreneurs. As we work to help them grow their businesses, we are making big investments: in our delivery network, data center โ as explored in the economics of AI compute infrastructure โ s, AI research, robotics. Since 2011, weโve invested tens of billions to help SMBs succeed working with Amazon. Amazon is inspired by the type of courage and inventiveness that makes entrepreneurs tick. And our customers benefit from the products, books, videos and skills they produce. We salute the millions of entrepreneurs, creators, and developers around the world whose impressive efforts are summarized in this report.
Amazon runs six revenue engines on one customer base, and AWS earns most of the profit. Source: Amazonquarterly earnings releases (Form 8-K, SEC); full-year 2025 = sum of four quarters. Framework: FourWeekMBA / The Business Engineer. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Key Highlights of Amazon’s Third-Party Seller Strategy:
Platform Expansion: Since the late 1990s, Amazon has implemented a strategy of enabling third-party sellers to operate on its platform. This approach has led to a significant increase in product variety, reduced prices, and the expansion of Amazon into numerous categories.
Customer-Centric Mission: Amazon’s overarching mission is to be the most customer-centric company on Earth. This extends to focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurs as part of their customer base.
Investments in SMBs:Amazon has made substantial investments in various areas, such as delivery networks, data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) research, and robotics, with the goal of helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) succeed on its platform.
Long-Term Commitment: The company has been committed to supporting SMBs since 2011, investing tens of billions of dollars to aid their growth and success within the Amazon ecosystem.
Entrepreneurial Spirit:Amazon values the courage and inventiveness that drive entrepreneurs, and the company is inspired by the efforts of entrepreneurs, creators, and developers worldwide.
Customer Benefits: Amazon’s customers benefit from the diverse range of products, books, videos, and skills produced by these entrepreneurs. The collaboration with small businesses enriches the overall customer experience.
First-party revenue is the full price of goods Amazon buys and resells. Third-party revenue is only the fees Amazon charges sellers: commissions, fulfilment and shipping. A dollar of third-party revenue therefore sits on several dollars of goods sold, which makes the marketplace much larger than its revenue line suggests.
That is why third-party seller services are the more valuable line: no inventory risk, and fees that grow with every seller who uses Amazon’s warehouses and ads.
Amazon in charts
Amazon turns $201B of sales into $27.5B of operating profit, and AWS earns most of it. Source: Amazon Q2 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, SEC). Segment net sales and operating income as reported; costs calculated. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Keep exploring
More on Amazon Third-Party Sales vs. First-Party Sales and its peers
Amazon reported $172.2B of third-party seller services revenue in 2025 (Form 10-K).
Is first-party or third-party bigger?
By revenue, first-party online stores ($269.3B in 2025). By goods sold, third-party sellers account for most units, but their revenue counts only Amazon’s fees.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur, HackerNoon and Search Engine People. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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