Amazon today has the largest revenue in the world even though it had a humble beginning as an online bookstore. In 2020, the e-commerce giant generated revenue of $386 billion and had market cap of $1,668 billion. It employs almost 1.3 million people. Amazon revenue growth has been at a CAGR of 30 per cent between 2016 and 2020 with profit growth rate being almost two and a half times more. In percentage terms, Amazon’s profit increased from 1.7 per cent in 2016 to 5.5 per cent in 2020.

It sells products as well as services with the former contributing 58 per cent in revenue. In terms of business segments identified as online stores, physical stores, third-party seller services, subscription services, AWS (Amazon Web Services) and others, online stores contribute an average of 51 per cent in sale, 19 percent contribution comes from thirdparty seller services, whereas balance 30 per cent is collectively contributed by physical stores, subscription services, AWS and other segments.