Over 60% of the current top 10,000 sellers on Amazon.com registered on the marketplace before 2019. Despite thousands of new sellers joining daily, the marketplace elite remains largely stable, with pre-2019 cohorts maintaining their dominance.
Five years ago, half of the top sellers had been selling for at least four years; today’s data shows that threshold has risen to six-plus years for over 60% of top sellers.
According to Marketplace Pulse research, pre-2016 sellers constitute nearly 30% of today’s top sellers on Amazon.com, with 2016-2018 cohorts each contributing roughly 10% to the elite group. Recent years maintain representation - nearly 10% of top sellers registered within the last two years - proving the marketplace remains penetrable for strategic newcomers.
The vast majority of sellers never reach these heights. Less than 8% of all seller registrations before 2019 remain active today. That number climbs with time due to the recency of account creation but still sits below 20% for sellers registered as recently as 2022. Less than 30% of those who registered in 2023 are still active.
This high attrition rate reflects marketplace realities. Over 30% of registered accounts never make a sale, but for the ones that do, persistent headwinds have become the norm. Rising fulfillment fees and increasing advertising costs have contributed to Amazon’s growing take rate—now exceeding 50% for many sellers.
External factors also play their part. Recent years have delivered numerous and varied off-platform challenges for Amazon sellers—a pandemic, container prices skyrocketing, surging inflation, and, most recently, a whirlwind of tariff volatility have all played their part in further complicating operations.
Yet the marketplace continues to reward persistence. Amazon’s GMV growth rate tracks a similar trend to its seller growth rate, creating opportunity despite competition. More than half of Amazon’s marketplace GMV comes from sellers who started selling more than five years ago, demonstrating that established sellers can build sustainable businesses even as conditions evolve.
The data tells a clear story: Amazon selling isn’t easy, but for those who navigate its challenges and master proven strategies, the rewards remain substantial for both veteran sellers and new challengers. However, when it comes to success on Amazon, longevity remains the strongest predictor.
