Amazon's North American retail operations exceeded $700 billion in gross merchandise value in 2024 across the marketplace, retail, Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and adjacent platforms. The strategic context for consumer brands is meaningfully more complex than a single comparable sales number can capture, because Amazon now operates as a multi platform retailer with distinct vendor relationships, fulfillment models, and shopper segments across each platform.
The marketplace and retail dynamic. The fundamental strategic choice for consumer brands selling at Amazon remains the 1P retail relationship versus the 3P marketplace relationship. In 1P, Amazon purchases inventory wholesale, manages pricing and merchandising, and controls the listing experience. In 3P, the brand sells directly to consumers through the marketplace with Amazon providing platform infrastructure, fulfillment if Fulfilled by Amazon is used, and customer reach in exchange for referral fees. The 3P share of gross merchandise value continued to grow in 2024 and now represents the majority of unit sales, indicating the structural shift toward the marketplace model.
Whole Foods Market and the premium grocery position. Whole Foods continued to operate as the premium organic grocery channel and delivered meaningful comparable sales growth driven by the integration with Amazon Prime benefits including delivery, returns, and member pricing. For brands in premium, organic, and natural categories, Whole Foods remains one of the most strategically valuable grocery placements in the United States, with the integrated Amazon ecosystem providing customer acquisition and basket attachment opportunities that few competing grocers can match.
Amazon Fresh and the conventional grocery push. Amazon Fresh, the conventional grocery banner, continued to expand and is positioned as the mass market complement to the Whole Foods premium channel. The format strategy has evolved meaningfully over the past several years, with the latest iteration of stores emphasizing fresh prepared foods, private label development, and the seamless Prime member experience. For brands in conventional grocery categories, Amazon Fresh provides an additional channel that operates with different unit economics than the Whole Foods relationship.
Amazon Brand Registry as the foundation. For brands selling on the marketplace, Amazon Brand Registry remains the foundational program that protects listing control, enables enhanced content, and unlocks advertising features. The program has expanded meaningfully in capability over the past several years and now provides one of the most sophisticated brand protection ecosystems available to consumer brands. Brand enrollment is increasingly understood as a day one launch requirement rather than a future enhancement.
Amazon Advertising and the retail media leadership. Amazon's advertising business continued to scale and is now the third largest digital advertising platform in the United States behind Alphabet and Meta. For consumer brands selling through any Amazon platform, the advertising business is increasingly the most important profit lever beyond the wholesale or marketplace transaction. The trade marketing budget allocation between Amazon advertising, retail media networks at other retailers, and traditional brand advertising is increasingly the most strategic decision in the consumer brand marketing mix.
What this means for international brands. Amazon is the single most strategic US channel for nearly every consumer brand category, and the bar for execution continues to rise. The brands that succeed at Amazon today are the brands that have built the operational, advertising, and brand protection infrastructure to compete in the most sophisticated retail platform in the United States. The next eighteen months will be defined by continued investment in the advertising platform, the marketplace fulfillment infrastructure, and the integrated retail strategy that connects the marketplace to Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and the broader Amazon ecosystem.
