It was a record-setting year for sellers on Amazon, it was announced that in 2013 its sellers sold more than a billion units worldwide, this is cumulatively worth tens of billions of dollars, according to a press release by Amazon.
Sellers around the world continued the adoption of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a service that sellers can choose to have Amazon ship their products directly to customers and offer Amazon Prime benefits, free shipping, simple exporting to customers around the world, among other benefits, according to the press release.
The number of sellers using the FBA service grew more than 65% year-over-year worldwide in 2013, according to the press release. The FBA shipped more units worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2013 than the total number of FBA units combined in all of 2009 and 2010.
On Cyber Monday, more than 13 million units were ordered worldwide from sellers, according to the press release. This grew the total units order by over 50% year-over-year. The number of FBA units shipped worldwide grew more than 50% year-over-year during the 2013 holiday season.
Also on Cyber Monday, the number of businesses using Amazon Payments to allow customers to purchase on sellers’ own websites grew more than 50% year-over-year worldwide, according to the press release.
Apparel was the fastest growing category for sellers, the number of FBA units shipped doubled in size from 2012 to 2013, according to the press release.
Sellers saw a good holiday season in 2013, worldwide they shipped items to customers to more than 185 countries and to over 480,000 cities, according to the press release.
Sellers from 89 different countries fulfilled orders to U.S. customers using the FBA service, according to the press release.
Using the FBA service, sellers sold items in nearly every size – everything from travel size bottles of lotion to a set of 14’ high wrought iron gates, according to the press release.
Customers that purchased from sellers bought enough CDs to hold a concert that would last 340 years and they purchased enough toys to give a toy to each child under the age of six in Europe.
There were enough products sold worldwide that one of each placed end-to-end would reach from Toronto to London to Casablanca, according to the press release.
Customers purchased enough shoes from sellers worldwide to stretch heel to toe from Earth to The Hubble Space Telescope over five times, according to the press release.