Holiday sales far from 'ho-ho-hum' for Amazon sellers

Some of the details are vague, but businesses and individuals selling items via Amazon.com experienced a generally successful holiday season.

 

According to figures released by Amazon, more than 23 million items were ordered worldwide from sellers on Amazon on Cyber Monday, a more than 40% increase year-over-year. Use of the Amazon Sponsored Products targeted advertising service by sellers grew more than 100%year-over-year worldwide. Clicks on Sponsored Products in the U.S. grew by more than 200% from the previous holiday season.

 

In addition, during the holiday season, individuals and businesses selling on Amazon sold to more than 80% of Amazon customers worldwide who ordered a physical item. The number of third-party seller items shipped via the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) hosted fulfillment system grew by more than 60% worldwide during the holidays.

 

Amazon also released some data about third-party sales performance during 2015:

 

• FBA delivered more than 1 billion items to customers worldwide.

• Active sellers worldwide using the FBA service grew more than 50% year-over-year.

• Using the FBA service, Amazon sellers from more than 100 different countries around the world fulfilled orders to customers in 185 countries.

• Cross-border sellers worldwide using FBA grew more than 100% year-over-year.

• In 2015, sellers worldwide using Sponsored Products grew more than 100%.

• Sellers worldwide garnered more than $1.5 billion in sales through Sponsored Products listings.

 

“2015 was a big year for sellers on Amazon,” said Peter Farcy, VP Amazon Marketplace. “In fact, sellers added more new selection and shipped more items than in any previous year. We’re excited to build on that momentum as we continue to innovate on behalf of sellers and customers.”



These results are impressive, but are reminiscent of similarly vague statistics Amazon recently issued about Amazon Prime’s holiday performance. Amazon is a notoriously secretive company, but if it really wants to impress the industry with its success, it should consider releasing at least a few more specific numbers from its year-end performance.