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Amazon increases product listings 43 percent heading into holidays
Amazon added four times as many SKUs to its website between July and September as it did in the entire first half of 2014.
November 18, 2014
After a slow start to the year, Amazon grew its online product listings by 43 percent in the third quarter as the holiday shopping season approached, according to the CommerceHub Product Assortment Index.
According to the index, Amazon added four times as many SKUs to its website between July and September as it did in the entire first half of 2014. The online retail giant reduced its product assortment by 7 percent in the first quarter and slowly ramped up in the second quarter, increasing listings by 18 percent.
The third-quarter explosion marks the first time this year that Amazon has added products at a faster pace than other large retailers included in the CommerceHub Product Assortment Index, which tracks more than 600 million SKUs every week. Collectively, those retailers increased their product assortment by 15 percent over the same period.
With many pre-holiday predictions indicating that e-commerce sellers will see record sales this year, Amazon is adding products in key categories ahead of Black Friday. Traditional retailers have also been steadily increasing their product assortment throughout the year as they race to catch up with Amazon's vast number of SKUs.
Amazon’s product assortment growth focused on a few specific categories heading into the holidays, including electronics, home improvement, home goods, and health and beauty. The company reduced listings in baby and kids, and toys and games, two categories where other retailers added products.
Amazon | Category | Other Retailers | ||||||
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | YTD |
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | YTD |
30% | -2% | 20% | 53% | Apparel and Accessories | 76% | 47% | -7% | 124% |
71% | -13% | 17% | 77% | Appliances | 77% | 21% | 34% | 190% |
52% | -13% | -21% | 6% | Baby and Kids | 35% | 43% | 17% | 142% |
-19% | 34% | 66% | 69% | Electronics and Entertainment | 47% | 58% | 39% | 162% |
52% | 0% | 34% | 95% | Health and Beauty | 60% | 8% | 19% | 34% |
-30% | 29% | 53% | 33% | Home Goods | 70% | 8% | 36% | 72% |
10% | 16% | 59% | 102% | Home Improvement | 59% | 9% | 15% | 34% |
11% | 0% | -15% | -11% | Patio and Garden | 23% | 62% | 25% | 154% |
14% | 8% | 9% | 35% | Pet Supplies | 77% | -14% | 136% | 132% |
-6% | 19% | -10% | -1% | Toys and Games | 11% | 48% | 76% | 175% |
Over the course of the entire year, other major retailers have added products faster than Amazon. Traditional retailers grew SKUs by 82 percent in the first nine months of the year, outpacing Amazon in 13 of 15 categories.
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