Amazon beauty - statistics & facts
The king of e-commerce, Amazon, is conquering yet another niche: beauty. The beauty segment is one of the platform’s fastest-growing product categories and the most profitable among sellers. Amazon has an advantageous market position over other beauty retailers’ websites, as it offers competitive prices and provides a one-stop shopping experience with cross-merchandising. Furthermore, the unparalleled selection of beauty items available from both first-party (1P) and third-party (3P) vendors makes Amazon formidable.
Amazon’s conquest in beauty e-commerce has been impressive in its home market. However, the rise of affordable Chinese marketplaces could challenge Amazon’s overall e-commerce leadership, including its dominance of the beauty and personal care online market.
Amazon’s most successful market
In Amazons biggest market, the United States, it is the leading online platform for beauty purchases. In the U.S., the category is named beauty and personal care, which varies in name depending on which country site is being viewed. In 2017, the U.S. site made the beauty category open for all 3P sellers, without the need of a separate approval process. Since that policy change, the beauty segment has grown rapidly. In 2024, monthly revenues from its beauty and personal care product sales in the country are estimated to range between 2.4 and 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, driven by shoppers who cite better prices and greater flexibility as key reasons for choosing Amazon.Global competition
Amazon faces stiff competition from Chinese online marketplaces on a global scale. In 2023, Chinese platforms dominated the global personal care market by gross merchandise value (GMV), with Douyin generating around 80 billion U.S. dollars and Tmall reaching approximately 52 billion U.S. dollars. Despite ranking sixth globally with a personal care GMV of roughly 24 billion U.S. dollars, Amazon has secured one-third of the U.S. health and personal care e-commerce market, making it the top online beauty purchase channel in the country, surpassing even specialized beauty retailers.Amazon’s conquest in beauty e-commerce has been impressive in its home market. However, the rise of affordable Chinese marketplaces could challenge Amazon’s overall e-commerce leadership, including its dominance of the beauty and personal care online market.
