Amazon’s Third-Party and Small Business Sellers Lead ‘Record Breaking’ Holiday

Amazon’s third-party sellers sold more products than ever this holiday season, led by surging sales among small businesses

This, as the digital retail giant said Thursday (Dec 29) that small businesses (SMBs) sold nearly half a billion items in the U.S. alone, as the company’s third-party selling partners now account for nearly 60% of total sales.

“I want to acknowledge that while this has been a challenging year, I appreciate how our selling partners have delivered for customers while navigating this uncertain economic climate,” Amazon Vice President of Worldwide Selling Partner Services Dharmesh Mehta said in the release.

During the holiday season, the top categories of products sold on Amazon by small businesses included home, beauty, kitchen, toys and apparel, according to the release.

About 2 million selling partners around the world sell through the store, according to the firm’s November 2022 Small Business Empowerment Report.

Third-party marketplaces have become a key arena in the competition between Amazon and its rival Walmart.

As PYMNTS reported in August, Walmart said at that time that its marketplace seller count had increased 60% year on year and that its marketplaces draw 120 million monthly visitors.

Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said during an Aug. 16 earnings call that “the growth in eCommerce and marketplace all help us be able to identify the right sellers and suppliers that we can connect.”

Both Walmart and Amazon recently rolled out new tools to help third-party sellers connect with shoppers on their platforms.

In September, Amazon announced that it was piloting new resources for direct-to-consumers (D2C) eCommerce merchants using its Buy with Prime program. These include targeted marketing emails, pages that direct shoppers to off-site sellers and Alexa artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Hours later, Walmart answered with its own upgraded outreach to help sellers connect with shoppers. These include a “Search Brand Amplifier,” a swifter onboarding process at the Walmart Ad Center and additional application programming interfaces (APIs) to serve international sellers.

In Amazon’s Thursday press release, Mehta said: “We recognize that there are many ways for entrepreneurs to reach customers and grow their brand, and we are grateful that a growing number of amazing small businesses continue to choose our store. We remain committed to their success, and will continue innovating to build the tools and services that help their businesses thrive and provide customers with a truly exceptional shopping experience.”