Most things sold on Amazon are made in China. Now, most of its top sellers are Chinese, too.
Chinese sellers on Amazon started making up more than half of e-commerce platform's 10,000 top-performing sellers in 2024, compared with U.S. sellers accounting for around 46%, according to research by consultancy Marketplace Pulse.
Back in 2016, sellers from China made up only around 15% of Amazon's top sellers, versus nearly 76% for the U.S.
China's share is even higher for all active sellers and its share has steadily gone up over the last decade in the U.S and other international versions of Amazon's platform, Marketplace Pulse said.
By comparison, Marketplace Pulse said 30% of sellers on Walmart.com are Chinese versus 20% a year ago.
The growth of Chinese sellers invites government scrutiny of Amazon and also comes at the expense of Americans, Marketplace Pulse Founder Juozas Kaziukėnas said.
"Nurturing sellers in China promises getting closer to the source at a significant expense of sellers, jobs, taxes, safety, quality, counterfeit, and many other issues in the U.S," Kaziukėnas said.
Amazon didn't immediately respond to ConsumerAffair's request for comment.
The rise of Chinese sellers follows the launch of Amazon Haul in Nov. 2024, a discount storefront where shoppers buy directly from Chinese manufacturers in an effort to compete with similar offerings like Temu.
Chinese sellers have also been gaining on e-commerce platforms even as imports from China have shown signs of decline in the U.S., Kaziukėnas said.
China accounted for less than half of low-cost imports in 2024, according to the Kearney reshoring index, after some Chinese businesses have moved manufacturing to other countries, such as Vietnam, to avoid the risk of tariffs.