Platform Operations · 2026-04-13

Why Sell on Amazon US: Revenue Potential, Traffic, and Market Size (2026 Data)

Amazon US processes over $600 billion in annual GMV with third-party sellers capturing 60%+ of all sales. Here is the data on revenue potential, traffic advantages, and what international sellers need to enter the market.

The Numbers That Matter

Amazon US is not just the largest e-commerce platform in the United States. It is the largest product search engine, the largest fulfillment network, and the single most efficient channel for reaching American consumers. In 2025, Amazon US generated an estimated $600 billion or more in gross merchandise volume (GMV). Third-party sellers accounted for more than 60% of that total.

That means independent sellers on Amazon moved over $360 billion in products through the platform in a single year.

For context, that is more than the entire GDP of many countries. And the platform is still growing.

Third-Party Seller Revenue: What Is Realistic?

The average Amazon third-party seller generates between $50,000 and $250,000 in annual revenue. Top performers clear seven figures. But averages can be misleading. What matters is the distribution:

About 20% of active sellers generate less than $10,000 per year (hobbyists, side projects, abandoned accounts)

About 50% generate between $10,000 and $100,000 per year (small but real businesses)

About 25% generate between $100,000 and $1 million per year (serious operations with employees or VAs)

About 5% generate over $1 million per year (brands, aggregator-acquired businesses, category leaders)

The key insight is that the middle tier, the $50K-$250K range, is accessible to a single founder with the right product and infrastructure. You do not need a warehouse, a team of 20, or a massive advertising budget. You need a good product, an optimized listing, and FBA.

Traffic: Why Amazon Beats Everything Else

Amazon receives approximately 2.7 billion monthly visits in the US alone. To put that in perspective:

eBay: approximately 700 million monthly visits (about 25% of Amazon)

Walmart.com: approximately 500 million monthly visits (about 18% of Amazon)

Shopify (all stores combined): fragmented across millions of individual storefronts, no centralized traffic pool

Etsy: approximately 450 million monthly visits (niche, handmade/vintage focused)

The critical difference is not just volume but intent. People who visit Amazon are looking to buy. The conversion rate on Amazon product pages averages 10-15%, compared to 1-3% for typical e-commerce websites. This means every visitor on Amazon is 5-10x more likely to become a customer than a visitor on your own Shopify store.

For international sellers who do not have an existing US customer base or brand recognition, this traffic advantage is existential. Building traffic to your own website from zero in the US market costs real money. On Amazon, the traffic already exists. You are paying Amazon a referral fee (typically 15%) for access to that traffic, which is often cheaper than the customer acquisition cost of running your own ads.

Growth Trends: Chinese, Indian, and Japanese Sellers

The composition of Amazon US third-party sellers has shifted dramatically over the past five years:

Chinese sellers now represent an estimated 50%+ of all new third-party seller registrations on Amazon US. They dominate categories like electronics accessories, home goods, and kitchen products. The infrastructure to support Chinese sellers on Amazon (supply chain, freight forwarding, listing optimization services) is now a multi-billion dollar industry in Shenzhen and Yiwu alone.

Indian sellers are the fastest-growing segment. Amazon has invested heavily in its India-to-US export program, and the devaluation of the rupee makes US dollar revenue increasingly attractive. Indian sellers are particularly strong in textiles, jewelry, and specialty foods.

Japanese sellers tend to focus on quality-differentiated products: skincare, stationery, precision tools, specialty foods. The Japanese seller community is smaller but has higher average revenue per seller, reflecting a quality-over-quantity approach.

For all three groups, the infrastructure requirement is the same: you need a US business entity, a US business address, and a US bank account. These are not optional. They are prerequisites for operating as a professional seller on Amazon US, receiving payments efficiently, and passing verification.

Entry Barriers: Lower Than You Think (With One Exception)

Compared to building your own e-commerce brand from scratch, Amazon has remarkably low entry barriers:

What you do NOT need:

Your own website (Amazon is the platform)

Your own warehouse (FBA handles storage and shipping)

Your own customer service team (Amazon handles most buyer inquiries)

Your own payment processing (Amazon handles payments)

Your own traffic or marketing infrastructure (Amazon provides the marketplace)

What you DO need:

A product (sourced, manufactured, or white-labeled)

A US LLC or corporation (required for professional seller accounts for non-US residents)

A legitimate US business address (required for verification, and it cannot be a PO box or CMRA)

A US bank account (required for receiving payouts)

An Amazon Professional Seller account ($39.99/month)

UPC codes for your products (unless you qualify for brand registry exemption)

The one exception, the thing that stops most international founders, is the US infrastructure requirement. Forming the LLC is straightforward. Getting a legitimate business address that passes Amazon verification is where most sellers get stuck. And without the address, you cannot open the bank account, and without the bank account, you cannot receive payouts.

FBA: The Unfair Advantage

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is the single biggest reason to sell on Amazon rather than any other platform. Here is what FBA gives you:

Prime eligibility. Your products get the Prime badge, which dramatically increases conversion rates. Prime members spend an average of $1,400 per year on Amazon, compared to $600 for non-Prime members. They buy more and they buy more often.

Same-day or next-day delivery. Amazon handles picking, packing, and shipping from their fulfillment centers. You ship your inventory to Amazon in bulk. They handle individual orders.

Customer service and returns. Amazon handles returns, refunds, and buyer inquiries for FBA orders. You do not need a US-based customer service team.

Buy Box advantage. FBA sellers win the Buy Box more frequently than merchant-fulfilled sellers, all else being equal. The Buy Box is where 80%+ of Amazon sales occur.

For an international seller, FBA eliminates the need for a US warehouse, a US shipping operation, and a US customer service team. It compresses what would normally require $50,000-$100,000 in infrastructure investment into a variable cost (FBA fees per unit).

The Infrastructure Requirement: Not Optional

Here is the reality that most "how to sell on Amazon" guides gloss over: the US infrastructure requirement is not optional, and it is not trivial.

To sell professionally on Amazon US as an international founder, you need:

1. A US business entity (LLC or corporation, typically in Wyoming or Delaware)

2. A US business address that is not a registered agent address, not a CMRA/virtual mailbox, and not a PO box. It must be a real commercial address that can receive verification postcards and pass video verification.

3. A US bank account opened in the name of your LLC, using your business address

These three elements form a dependency chain. You cannot open the bank account without the LLC and the address. You cannot pass Amazon verification without the address and the bank account. And the address must be consistent across all three: your LLC registration, your bank, and your Amazon account.

This is where the "virtual mailbox" and "registered agent address" shortcuts fail. They work fine for LLC registration. They fail at bank account opening and Amazon verification. Both banks and Amazon actively screen for CMRA addresses and registered agent addresses.

The solution is a commercial sublease at a real commercial address, which gives you a legitimate business address that passes verification at banks, Amazon, and every other platform. It is the foundational infrastructure that everything else depends on.

Should You Start?

If you have a product idea, access to supply chain, and a willingness to learn Amazon's system, the answer is almost certainly yes. The market is massive, growing, and more accessible to international sellers than at any point in history.

But do not skip the infrastructure. The sellers who fail on Amazon are not usually the ones with bad products. They are the ones who used a virtual mailbox that got flagged, could not open a bank account, could not pass verification, and spent months stuck in limbo.

Set up the foundation first: LLC, commercial address, bank account. Then focus on product and marketing. The infrastructure takes 2-4 weeks to establish properly. The business you build on top of it can last for years.