Amazon Is No Longer Just a Retailer

Amazon continues to evolve far beyond its origins as a retailer. Today, retail accounts for just 40.5% of the company’s total revenue - down from more than half only four years ago, with the decline showing no signs of slowing.

The company’s alternative revenue streams are accelerating. Advertising, for example, has grown 22% year over year, supported by Amazon’s expanding media and partnerships ecosystem. The company is investing heavily in extending its ad network across platforms such as Disney, Netflix, Paramount, and major live sports, further embedding itself in the broader entertainment landscape.

Amazon is also pushing deeper into advertising opportunities for non-endemic brands - those that do not sell products on Amazon. By offering visibility to advertisers without any retail presence on the platform, Amazon is signalling just how central advertising has become to its growth strategy, increasingly independent from its retail roots.

Amazon is also scaling its logistics capabilities at pace. Its operations now span freight, storage, picking and packing, and last-mile delivery. On the digital infrastructure side, AWS continues to surge, with revenue up 20% year over year, reinforcing Amazon’s dominant position in cloud computing.

What’s becoming clear is that Amazon’s future lies less in selling products and more in powering the infrastructure that enables commerce worldwide. The company is repositioning itself as a foundational engine of global retail rather than simply a participant in it.

For sellers, this shift carries important implications. Amazon should no longer be viewed purely as a marketplace but as a growing layer of infrastructure and data that underpins modern retail. The platform has long operated as a pay-to-play environment, and these changes will only accelerate that model - driving revenue through fees, advertising, and services designed to support selling both on and off Amazon’s own storefront.

In this evolving landscape, brands and sellers must adapt to Amazon’s expanding role, recognising it not just as a retailer, but as a critical partner and enabler of growth across the broader retail ecosystem.