Overview

Amazon’s latest Small Business Impact Report reveals that independent sellers generated $2.5 trillion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) for 2024, a 12 % increase over the previous year. The data arrives alongside fresh TikTok Shop shopper insights, a retroactive shipping‑rate refund program that reaches back to 2018, and a new audio‑driven AI tool that rewrites product listings. Sellers should pay close attention because each development offers concrete opportunities to boost sales, cut costs, and reach new audiences.

Key Points

• $2.5 trillion GMV — Independent sellers on Amazon moved $2.5 trillion worth of goods in 2024, up 12 % YoY.
• Fast‑growing categories — Health & personal care, home organization, and pet supplies each posted growth exceeding 20 % during the same period.
• TikTok Shop shopper profile — 68 % of buyers are under 35, and more than half admit to making impulse purchases after watching a short video.
• Retroactive shipping refunds — Amazon will automatically credit eligible orders placed between 2018 and 2022 for shipping‑rate miscalculations, affecting roughly 1.3 million transactions.
• Audio‑first listing optimizer — The new AI can generate spoken‑style titles and bullet points, delivering up to an 8 % lift in conversion rates in early tests.

How the Amazon Seller Report Works

1. Data aggregation — Amazon extracts order information from every third‑party seller while filtering out its own inventory. For example, a handmade‑soap maker’s sales are counted alongside millions of other independent vendors.
2. Category grouping — Sales are allocated to 27 predefined categories, allowing precise YoY growth calculations. A pet‑food brand can see its 23 % increase compared with the overall 20 % rise in the pet supplies segment.
3. Margin estimation — A standardized cost‑of‑goods‑sold factor is applied to approximate gross profit per category, adjusting for typical shipping and referral fees.
4. Benchmarking — Sellers receive a percentile rank that shows how they compare with peers in the same category. A home‑organization seller in the 75th percentile outperforms three‑quarters of competitors.