The Sellers Who Pay Roughly HalfWide moat

Amazon (AMZN) — moat facet

Supplier, paying customer and competitor on the same product page — and because the traffic belongs to Amazon, the take rate has proved raisable.

Amazon's largest commercial relationship is with the independent merchants who supply about 60% of the units sold on its site1 and hand back roughly half of each sale in referral fees, fulfilment charges and advertising2. They occupy every role at once — supplier, paying customer, and competitor to Amazon's own retail operation on the same product page.

Where a third-party sale's dollar goesKept by the seller — 50%Amazon: referral, fulfilment, ads — 50%Third-party sellers supply ~60% of units — carrying inventory risk and working capital themselves
Supplier, customer and competitor at once — and because the traffic belongs to Amazon rather than the seller, the take rate has kept rising.

For Amazon this is close to an ideal arrangement. Sellers carry the inventory risk, fund the working capital and choose the assortment, while Amazon collects a percentage regardless of whether a product succeeds — and because the traffic belongs to Amazon rather than to any seller, the take rate has proved raisable over time. A merchant with a viable business on Amazon has extremely limited ability to object.

That asymmetry is also the source of most of the antitrust attention Amazon faces, and it caps how far the fees can go. Sellers do have alternatives now — Shopify for their own storefronts, Walmart's growing marketplace, and Temu's factory-direct route around the whole model — and every fee increase raises the value of those options. Watch third-party unit share alongside seller-services revenue growth: revenue growing much faster than units means the rate is rising, which is exactly what regulators and sellers are both watching.

Moat trajectory: Widening

The all-in take rate has kept rising because sellers have limited ability to object to the terms of traffic they do not own — which is excellent economics and the direct cause of most of the antitrust attention Amazon faces. Widening commercially while the alternatives (Shopify, Walmart's marketplace, factory-direct) quietly improve.

The number that tests this moat
Third-party estimate
Third-party share of units, and the take
~60% of units, ~50% take rate

Sellers carry the inventory risk and the working capital while Amazon collects a percentage regardless of outcome — and the rate has proved raisable because the traffic is not theirs. Watch seller-services revenue growth against third-party unit growth: the gap is the rate rising, which regulators are watching too.

Source: Amazon 10-K; third-party take-rate estimates ↗
References
  1. ReportedThird-party sellers account for about 60% of units sold.
    Amazon disclosure — third-party sellers account for ~60%+ of units sold (millions of active sellers) — Company-disclosed, ongoing · publ. 2023-2026 · source ↗
  2. Third-party estimateThe all-in take rate approaches half of each sale once referral, fulfilment and advertising fees are counted.
    Marketplace Pulse / ILSR analyses — cumulative seller take (referral + FBA + advertising) approaching ~50% of a typical seller's revenue — Recent analyses · publ. 2023-2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 22, 2026