Amazon Q3 Earnings – FBA Fees & Advertising Continue to Grow. Retail Growth Steady
Amazon released Q3 2025 earnings Thursday. The main headline? Amazon's retail business continues to be a footnote for Amazon the company.
The majority of Amazon's accomplishments listed in its earnings release centered around AWS—and the projected growth around AWS sent the stock soaring in after-hours trading.
However, despite the attention around AWS, the retail side of Amazon had a strong quarter, not only for sales (good news for sellers) but also in advertising and seller services fees (bad news for sellers).
Related Reading: Amazon Quarterly Performance Tracker
Retail Growth Strong but Down
Amazon's “online store revenue” (mostly ecommerce revenue) grew at 8% for the quarter. This down was down from the 8% reported in Q2 but still strong relatively to earnings over the last three year.s
The strong retail growth will help quell both investor and seller fears that tariffs could be slowing consumer demand on the platform.
Amazon Advertising Outpaces Retail Growth by 100%
Amazon's advertising services continue to soar, with growth of 22% in the quarter. In other words, advertising services grew at more than twice the pace of online store revenue.
It's unclear where exactly Amazon continues to see the massive gains in advertising revenue. The majority of Amazon's advertising occurs on its own platforms, such as search results pages and product detail pages on Amazon, via formats like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. It also happens off-site, through display and video ads on third-party websites/apps and Amazon-owned media properties (e.g., Prime Video, IMDb, Fire TV).
Amazon Seller Services Show Massive Growth
Third-party seller services (which include FBA fees and referral fees) saw very strong growth for Amazon in Q3, increasing by 11%. This is good news for Amazon's investors but bad news for Amazon sellers.
It's not clear where exactly Amazon saw the strong growth in seller services. Amazon introduced a swath of new fees starting in January 2026, but new fees were relatively limited in 2025.
Strong AWS Outlook Results in Stock Price Surge
Amazon stock surged more than 10% in after-hours trading due to stronger-than-expected earnings and a positive outlook. The focus of that outlook was on predicted AWS demand, not retail growth.
- Empowered sellers with genAI tools, with over 1.3 million independent sellers using these tools to easily create high-quality, engaging product listings and bring even more selection to customers.
- Expanded Multi-Channel Fulfillment to sellers using Walmart, Shopify, and SHEIN, so brands can reach customers wherever they shop while leveraging Amazon’s fast, reliable fulfillment network.
- Announced plans to add hundreds of thousands of seasonal jobs this holiday season, including 250,000 in the U.S., 150,000 in India, and thousands across Australia, Canada, France, Spain, and Central Europe.
- Announced a planned $1.9 billion investment in the Delivery Service Partner program in North America.
