E-commerce giant Amazon recently announced an increase of 22% in net sales to $469.8 Billion for 2021 from $386.1 Billion in 2020 according to its fourth-quarter press release.
The retailer also announced its advertising business had generated $31.2 billion in revenue last year. This is the first time they’ve published earnings from their advertising business, which currently comprises 7% of their total revenue in the fourth quarter. The jump comes after Amazon recorded its biggest-ever Black Friday to Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend. Apparel, beauty, home, and toys remain to be the top-selling categories.
With the ongoing Pandemic and threat brought by the Omicron variant, online shopping has grown exponentially with more than 130,000 third-party sellers worldwide having surpassed $100,000 in sales on Amazon. Especially Black Friday and Christmas, U.S.-based third-party sellers sold an average of 11,500 products per minute.
Amazon sellers use the retailer’s Pay Per Click or PPC feature to run sponsored ads, campaigns so their product listings will generate more impressions and conversions.
Amazon rarely discloses how big its advertising segment in terms of sales performance, even to its stakeholders.