Study sheds light on how many products Amazon actually carries (Hint: it’s a lot)

JUNE 14, 2016 | BY DAN BERTHIAUME

Amazon currently accounts for one in three shopping transactions in North America, but few details about the e-tail giant’s product assortment have not been readily available. Until now.  

A new report from 360pi reveals that Amazon the seller carried about 12.2 million total products as of May 2016, excluding books, media, wine, and services. As well, product variants were not included in this analysis. But when products available from marketplace sellers were included, the total number of products increased almost 30 times to a total of 353.7 million items (applying the same exclusions noted above).

Of the 20 product categories analyzed, the top five in terms of product count are:

1. Cell phones and accessories: 82 million products.

2. Home and kitchen: 64.27 million products.

3. Clothing, shoes and jewelry: 33.42 million products (including categories for men, women, girls, boys and baby).

4. Electronics: 31.6 million products.

5. Sports and outdoors: 24 million products.

360pi also tracked year-over-year changes in product count in several categories of interest, detailing shifts in assortment strategies and overall category growth. For example, from May 2015 to May 2016, Amazon increased its own product count in clothing, shoes and jewelry by 83%, while marketplace sellers in this category also grew the number of products offered by 84%.

Amazon Marketplace now accounts for 50% of all units sold globally through Amazon, according to Jeff Bezos in a recent earnings release. A total of 688,690 unique brands sell on Amazon, and 4,490 brands have more than 5,000 listed products.

In addition, there are 185,025 unique sellers on Amazon, and 7,729 of them list more than 5,000 products for sale. Home and kitchen is an especially popular category, with 60% of the top Amazon marketplace sellers primarily focused on this category.

“As our holiday insights campaign revealed, even Amazon is moving beyond just price to compete and win with shoppers. Increasingly, it’s as much about having the right product, as the right price,” said Jenn Markey, VP of marketing, VP of marketing, 360pi, a price and product intelligence technology provider.