World's Largest Online Retailer and Marketplace, world record set by Amazon

November 11, 2024

Seattle, Washington, United States--Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence, founded on July 5, 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington, has the 12th-most visited website in the world; with with $412.1 billion in annual web sales it sets the world record for being the World's Largest Online Retailer and Marketplace, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

"Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.

"It is considered one of the Big Five American technology companies, the other four being Alphabet (parent company of Google), Apple, Meta (parent company of Facebook), and Microsoft." (Wikipedia)

"Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington. The company originally started as an online marketplace for books but gradually expanded its offerings to include a wide range of product categories.

"This diversification led to it being referred to as "The Everything Store".

"The company has multiple subsidiaries, including Amazon Web Services, providing cloud computing, Zoox, a self-driving car division, Kuiper Systems, a satellite Internet provider, and Amazon Lab126, a computer hardware R&D provider.

"Other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its market share and presence as a physical retailer.

"Amazon also distributes a variety of downloadable and streaming content through its Amazon Prime Video, MGM+, Amazon Music, Twitch, Audible and Wondery units.

"It publishes books through its publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, film and television content through Amazon MGM Studios, including the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, which was acquired in March 2022, and owns Brilliance Audio and Audible, which produce and distribute audiobooks, respectively.

"Amazon also produces consumer electronics—most notably, Kindle e-readers, Echo devices, Fire tablets, and Fire TVs." (Wikipedia)

"Amazon has a reputation as a disruptor of industries through technological innovation and aggressive reinvestment of profits into capital expenditures.

"As of 2023, it is the world's largest online retailer and marketplace, smart speaker provider, cloud computing service through AWS, live-streaming service through Twitch, and Internet company as measured by revenue and market share.

"It is the second-largest private employer in the United States and the second-largest company in the World and in the U.S. by revenue as of 2024. As of October 2024, Amazon is the 12th-most visited website in the world and 84% of its traffic comes from the United States." (Wikipedia)

"Amazon is the largest* online retailer in the world with $412.1 billion in annual web sales up 10.5% from 2022," the Digital Commerce 360 reports.

"In 2023, Amazon grew its ecommerce business by $45.9 billion. That’s larger than the sum of Nordstrom’s (No. 21 in Top 1000) entire ecommerce revenue over the last decade. Amazon’s e-commerce business has grown over $109.1 billion since 2020 and has a 5-year CAGR of 18.0%.

"Amazon.com is ranked No. 1 in the Top 1000 with over $400 billion in ecommerce sales annually. Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database is a complete ranking and data dive into the leading online retailers ranked 1-1,000 by annual web sales and headquartered in North America."

"Among its other ventures, such as streaming and publishing, this American company is the world’s largest online retailer," the Capital One Shopping says.

Amazon’s 2023 total company revenues were $574.8 billion.
Amazon’s international-only revenues in 2023 totaled $131.2 billion.
Amazon operates 589 stores in 22 countries.
69% of Amazon’s sales take place in the United States, where it holds a 4.45% share of the retail market.

"Amazon, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, has grown from a modest online bookstore to the largest online retailer in the world. Its expansive product range, competitive pricing, and fast shipping options have revolutionized e-commerce and established it as a household name," says George Mwangi on LinkedIn.

"Amazon's success can be attributed in large part to its extensive product selection. The company began as an online bookstore, but quickly diversified into a vast array of categories, including electronics, clothing, home goods, and groceries.

"Today, Amazon offers millions of products across virtually every conceivable category, catering to a global customer base with diverse needs and preferences."

"Amazon has spent the last two years in hyperdrive, doubling its fulfillment network and hiring over 800,000 people in an all-out scramble to meet skyrocketing demand from housebound consumers," the Forbes reports.

"The reward: Sales surged nearly 70% to $470 billion during the pandemic, and investors pushed its market capitalization over the trillion-dollar mark.

"That helped cement its status as the world’s largest retailer and the sixth-largest company on the planet, moving up four spots on Forbes’ Global 2000 list, which ranks companies using a composite score of revenues, profits, assets and market value."

"Amazon is a well-diversified company that benefits from several profitable revenue streams. The company specializes in disruptive innovation and can afford to fund forays into new industries in order to take market share away from its competitors. Amazon ended the third quarter of 2022 with sales up 15% to $127.1 billion from $110.8 billion in the third quarter of 2021," the Investopedia.com says.

"Online Stores: This category includes product and digital media sales from Amazon's e-commerce website. The company offers its customers a wide selection of durable and consumer goods along with digital-format products, such as e-books, videos, software, music, and games.

"Amazon sells a variety of subscription services. Its most popular paid subscription service is Amazon Prime, which has 200 million members around the world as of 2020. The company also sells subscriptions for e-books, audiobooks, digital video, and digital music."