Amazon’s Third-Party Merchants a Growing Piece of the Sales Pie - Digits - WSJ

Perhaps time to make a bid for eBay

"The Seattle company said Monday third-party merchants were responsible for 2 billion items sold last year, double the total in 2013, even as the number of such businesses held about steady compared with the prior period at “more than 2 million.”

Those merchants sold more than 40 percent of the items Amazon unloaded last year, according to a statement, suggesting a total of at least 5 billion items sold. Amazon used to regularly disclose what percentage of items it sold came from third parties—it said 39% were from outside vendors at the end of 2012—but had more recently suspended the practice."

Amazon’s Third-Party Merchants a Growing Piece of the Sales Pie - Digits - WSJ