What does it mean for third-party sellers?

Validation in the headline, pressure in the follow-through. The platform you sell on is now the largest retailer in the country, so every fee tweak or policy change moves the largest US retail surface. Read your Amazon P&L like a market KPI, not a channel KPI.

Operations

Amazon overtakes Walmart as the largest US retailer by GMV

Q: What changed on June 25, 2026?

JPMorgan published an analysis, reported by PYMNTS, confirming Amazon overtook Walmart as the largest retailer in the United States measured by gross merchandise value. It is the first leadership change at the top of US retail since Walmart unseated Sears in the 1980s.

PYMNTS and JPMorgan confirmed on June 25, 2026 that Amazon has officially passed Walmart to become the largest retailer in the United States measured by gross merchandise value. It is the first time the top spot has changed hands since Walmart unseated Sears in the 1980s. Roughly 60 percent of Amazon GMV runs through third-party sellers, so this is a shift in where commerce happens, not a shift in which company is bigger on a 10-K. The follow-through for brands and sellers is pressure, not just validation: when the largest US retailer moves a fee or a policy, everyone feels it.

MaxCOO at Nova Analytics

Jun 28, 2026 · 3 min read · 634 words

Updated June 28, 2026

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What happened

Amazon has officially overtaken Walmart to become the largest retailer in the United States by gross merchandise value, ending a multi-decade reign that Walmart had held since unseating Sears. PYMNTS broke the story on June 25, 2026 citing a JPMorgan analysis, and XOOMAR Insights followed up on June 27 framing 2025 as the crossover year. This is the first time since the 1980s that the top spot has changed hands.

The number that matters is GMV, not corporate revenue. GMV counts every dollar transacted on the platform, including third-party seller sales that Amazon never books on its own income statement. Roughly 60 percent of Amazon's GMV comes from third-party sellers. The shift is therefore a shift in where commerce happens, not in which company is bigger on a 10-K.

Why it matters for sellers and brands

The crossover formalizes a trend that has been quietly true for years: when a US shopper thinks about buying a product online, the default search now happens on Amazon, not Google and not a brand site. Brands and retailers that built their roadmaps around the store-first order, in-store discovery, then a digital echo, are now playing on the marketplace's terms.

For third-party sellers, the headline reads as validation. The platform you sell on is the largest retailer in the country. The follow-through reads as pressure: when Amazon adds a fee, tightens a policy, or reshuffles search, it now ripples through the largest retail surface in the US. The cost of getting the Amazon-side P&L wrong has never been higher.

What to do this quarter

1.
Treat Amazon as your primary retail KPI dashboard
If Amazon is now the largest retailer in the US, your weekly board pack should read Amazon performance like Walmart performance was read in 2010: not as a channel, as a market.
2.
Pressure-test margin against a fee or policy move
Bigger retailer, more leverage. Model a 1 percent referral-fee bump and a 5 percent FBA fee bump on your top 20 ASINs and see which lose contribution. Run the same drill on a tightened return policy.
3.
Keep the Amazon-side P&L clean across the 23 marketplaces
Sales, Amazon fees, refunds and reimbursements need to be readable at SKU level on the same dashboard for every Seller Central account you run. Nova's live P&L is built for that read.

Sources

PYMNTS, Amazon Unseats Walmart as Top US Retailer (June 25, 2026)
XOOMAR Insights, Amazon Dethrones Walmart as Top US Retailer by GMV (June 27, 2026)
Modern Retail, Amazon surpasses Walmart in annual revenue for the first time

Verified Sources

All information verified from official Amazon sources and trusted industry analysts as of publication date.

About the Author

Max

COO at Nova Analytics

Max leads operations at Nova Analytics, helping Amazon sellers optimize their business performance through data-driven insights and strategic automation.

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What happened

Why it matters for sellers and brands

What to do this quarter

Treat Amazon as your primary retail KPI dashboard

If Amazon is now the largest retailer in the US, your weekly board pack should read Amazon performance like Walmart performance was read in 2010: not as a channel, as a market.

Pressure-test margin against a fee or policy move

Bigger retailer, more leverage. Model a 1 percent referral-fee bump and a 5 percent FBA fee bump on your top 20 ASINs and see which lose contribution. Run the same drill on a tightened return policy.

Keep the Amazon-side P&L clean across the 23 marketplaces

Sales, Amazon fees, refunds and reimbursements need to be readable at SKU level on the same dashboard for every Seller Central account you run. Nova's live P&L is built for that read.

Amazon overtakes Walmart as the largest US retailer by GMV

What happened

Why it matters for sellers and brands

What to do this quarter

Sources

Verified Sources

Max

See your Amazon business clearly.

What happened

Why it matters for sellers and brands

What to do this quarter

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

What changed on June 25, 2026?

Why GMV and not revenue?

What does it mean for third-party sellers?

Frequently Asked Questions

What changed on June 25, 2026?

Why GMV and not revenue?

What does it mean for third-party sellers?