I have defined three different types of sellers on the Amazon FBA marketplace which are categorized by the type of goals they are interested in pursuing, types products listed on Amazon and the activities performed by the sellers. From Amazon’s most recent quarterly report, ChannelAdvisor executive chairman Scot Wingo, who follows Amazon closely, estimates that those outside merchants accounted for $27.9 billion worth of purchases on Amazon’s sites, while Amazon sold $20.4 billion worth of merchandise it owns. That puts third-party sellers at 58% of the $48.3 billion in the value of merchandise sold on Amazon’s sites in the quarter, Wingo says. The three types of Amazon FBA sellers that make up the 58% of products sold on Amazon are solopreneurs, small businesses, and enterprises.

Amazon FBA Solopreneur

Goals:
Lifestyle entrepreneur, low risk of capital purchases of inventory with lower chance of reward
Types of products:
Retail arbitrage, aliexpress
Activities performed:
They want to keep costs low so they leverage their own time to complete everything from listings, product uploads, and imaging

Amazon FBA Small Businesses

Goals:
Medium risk tolerance with medium potential for reward. They borrow credit from banks to stockpile inventory and grow more quickly.
Types of products:
This Amazon FBA seller uses alibaba to source products and with greater quantity. They have a warehouse in which they are able to package and prepare products for Amazon FBA.
Activities performed:
Small businesses will either bring on an employee for a box stacker position and hire a virtual assistant to help in listings.

Amazon FBA Enterprise

Goals:
Enterprise Amazon FBA have larger budgets in which they are able to have more products, brand products, and market their products. They use Amazon FBA as one of many channels to sell on. Managers work for enterprises and may not own a part of the company.
Types of products:
Enterprise Amazon FBA companies have private labeled brands that are recognized by consumers.
Activities performed:
Managing advertisement campaigns, optimizing listings, implementing different Amazon softwares in order to automate processes.

It’s worth noting that Amazon FBA sellers can be a combination of a few of these profiles. For example, a Solopreneur can have higher goals and be willing to risk more capital to grow quicker and have features of an Enterprise Amazon FBA seller. Which seller profile for your Amazon FBA business do you fall into?