Large appliances dominate Amazon seller revenues, but local consumer patterns emerge

Research from online consumer goods company Thrasio has found that large appliances on Amazon are driving the highest average seller revenue across key Western European markets.

Thrasio analysed data from SmartScot looking at Western Europe’s 60,000 Amazon sellers to reveal the makeup of the e-commerce giant’s booming market in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

In all countries except Germany, large appliances (covering goods like washing machines, fridges and microwaves) was the most lucrative category for sellers. In Italy, this category brought in €91k, almost three times as much average revenue as the next largest, watches, at €31k.

In comparison, electronic and photo (covering products like batteries, camera kit and headphone’) was the largest category for Germany, at €122k. Only two categories in Germany had average revenues above six figures a month, with ‘Lighting’ at €110k.

In France and Spain, shoppers are also adopting Amazon’s platform for B2B and office purchases, with the trade, industry and science category France’s second largest average revenue generator (€37k) and office and stationery Spain’s third largest at €25k. Office supplies was the fourth biggest category in Germany at €72k.

The data found that the UK had the highest number of sellers at just over 21k, bringing in an average monthly revenue of £122k. This is as many sellers as Italy, Spain and France combined.

Germany had the second largest numbers of sellers at 17k, with an average revenue of €55k, more than triple the average revenues in Italy, Spain and France. Despite having almost double the number of sellers as France (5k) and Spain (6k), Italy’s 10k sellers brought in the same average revenue at €15k.

Georg Hesse, VP Thrasio Germany and UK at Thrasio, says: “Brits are clearly reaping the rewards of a well-developed Amazon economy, with revenues far ahead of their peers in the other analysed countries.”

“Historically this might be because consumers in the UK are more comfortable with shopping online.”

“It’s interesting that the German market is less reliant on big ticket items like washing machines on the Amazon Marketplace, and this highlights that sellers need to be aware of underlying market nuances, such as whether the most popular products in your market have alternative routes to market.”

Hesse adds: “There’s plenty of potential for sellers in Europe to leverage Amazon’s platform and launch successful retail brands, even from their bedrooms.”

“You don’t need expensive warehouse space or big brand marketing budgets to get started anymore. Sellers have enormous opportunities and historically low barriers to entry. It’s an amazing time to be an entrepreneur.”

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