Amazon reported third-quarter net sales of $201.9 billion on Thursday, up 12%, then guided fourth-quarter sales and profit below Wall Street’s midpoint.
For a Shopify store owner selling high-ticket products, three lines in that report matter more than the headline: third-party seller services, advertising, and the holiday guide. They show what Amazon is charging sellers, how hard it will bid for shoppers’ attention in Q4, and how crowded the next eight weeks will be. This is the kind of read I do for the store owners at Ecommerce Paradise, because Amazon sets the price and delivery benchmark your buyers compare you against.
Below: the reported numbers with baselines, the two reasons the quarter is harder to read than it looks, my read on ad costs and pricing, and five moves to make before Black Friday.
Amazon is pushing ad products hard into Q4, so know who you are bidding against. Semrush shows you competitor keyword and ad positions before you lock a holiday budget. Research your Q4 competitors with Semrush →
Amazon Q3: $201.9B in Sales, $46.5B From Seller Services
Amazon released its results on October 29, 2026, for the quarter ended September 30. Net sales were $201.9 billion, up 12% from $180.2 billion a year earlier and up 13% excluding foreign exchange, according to the company’s earnings release.
Operating income hit $28.1 billion against $17.4 billion in Q3 2025, a margin of 13.9% versus 9.7%. Net income slipped to $20.7 billion from $21.2 billion, and diluted earnings per share were $1.89 versus $1.95. Amazon attributes the net income dip mainly to $9.5 billion in pre-tax gains on its Anthropic investments that boosted last year’s quarter.
The lines that touch sellers, per the same release:
Third-party seller services revenue was $46.5 billion, up 9% from $42.5 billion (10% excluding FX). Advertising services revenue was $19.6 billion, up 11% from $17.7 billion (12% excluding FX). Subscription services, which includes Prime, was $14.0 billion, up 11%.
By segment, North America sales rose 6% to $112.9 billion with operating income of $8.7 billion, up from $4.8 billion, which lifted the segment margin to 7.7% from 4.5%. International sales rose 5% to $43.1 billion. AWS sales jumped 39% to $46.0 billion, with operating income of $17.8 billion, or roughly 63% of the company’s total.
Amazon’s SEC exhibit carries the same figures. In it, CEO Andy Jassy said the AWS investment in functionality and infrastructure “is working” and projected AWS growth above 40% in both 2027 and 2028.
The guide is where Wall Street pushed back. Amazon expects Q4 net sales of $240.0 billion to $247.0 billion, 12% to 16% above the $213.4 billion it booked in Q4 2025. It expects operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion, versus $25.0 billion a year ago. It also expects Q4 advertising revenue to grow in the high teens and about $220 billion of capital spending for 2026.
Against expectations, Yahoo Finance’s live coverage reported earnings per share of $1.89 versus $1.97 expected and revenue of $201.9 billion versus $202.25 billion. Online store sales came in at $68.47 billion versus $69.6 billion expected. The Q4 sales midpoint of $243.5 billion sat $1 billion under the $244.5 billion consensus, and the operating income midpoint of $31 billion trailed the $32.99 billion consensus by about 6%.
Amazon stock closed down 4.25% at $243.79 before the report and fell about 5% more after hours to $231.52, per the same source. The article text separately says shares fell “more than 9%,” which conflicts with those quoted prices, so treat the exact after-hours move as unsettled.
On the seller side, Amazon highlighted Seller Assistant workflows for restocking and pricing, a plugin connecting Seller Assistant to Amazon Quick and Anthropic’s Claude, and multichannel listing, order and profitability management in Seller Central. It also launched Amazon Ads Agent and Full-Funnel Campaigns, which combine sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV, for all U.S. advertisers.
Why Prime Day Timing and an AWS-Heavy Profit Mix Muddy the Read
Two items make this quarter hard to compare, and Amazon flagged both itself.
First, Prime Day moved. It landed in Q2 for most large countries this year, versus fully in Q3 in 2025. Amazon says that shift cut Q3 growth by about 400 basis points. That is the company’s own estimate, and it also said Q3 advertising was affected by Prime Day timing. Take it as a reasonable explanation for the 9% and 11% growth rates, not a verified fact.
Second, profit is leaning on cloud. AWS produced roughly 63% of operating income, so a 61% jump in total operating income says more about AI infrastructure demand than about retail. The retail side did improve, with North America margin up 320 basis points, but North America sales growth of 6% is modest.
The counterpoint to a bearish read is real. The Q4 sales guide is only about 0.4% under consensus at the midpoint. One quarter and one guide is not a trend, and Alphabet fell more than 12% a day earlier after its own earnings miss, per Yahoo Finance, which suggests the stock reaction was partly a sector mood and not only an Amazon verdict. The counterpoint to a bullish read is the retail miss: online store sales landed about 1.6% below expectations.
The broader backdrop is healthy. Marketplace Pulse reported on August 27 that U.S. ecommerce grew 12.2% in Q2, its fastest pace in five years, reaching a record 17.1% of retail spending. Demand is not the problem. The fight over who captures it is.
That fight has been playing out all week. I covered eBay’s Q3, where GMV grew 15% while its take rate fell. Etsy’s take rate reached 26.2% in my Etsy Q3 breakdown. Marketplaces are all trying to earn more per transaction, and Amazon’s version is advertising.
Amazon is also changing how sellers work. Marketplace Pulse reported on September 24 that Amazon will let sellers manage eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Walmart stores from Seller Central, and I broke down its push to list other stores’ products in Amazon Shop Direct passing 250 million products.
What Amazon’s Ads Push and Q4 Guide Mean for High-Ticket Stores
Everything in this section is my read, not reported fact.
Amazon is telling advertisers it will grow ad revenue in the high teens in Q4, and it just opened a full-funnel product to every U.S. advertiser. My read is that Q4 auctions get more expensive, and not only on Amazon. Ad budgets that used to sit in one channel now chase shoppers across search, video and streaming, and your high-ticket buyer researches across all of them before calling you or checking out.
Here is hypothetical math, not a reported figure. Say your store spends $40,000 a month on ads at a 4.0 return on ad spend, producing $160,000 in revenue. If cost per click rises 10% and your conversion rate holds, the same $40,000 buys about 9% fewer clicks. Revenue falls to roughly $145,500, a loss of about $14,500. At a 25% gross margin, also hypothetical, that is around $3,600 of gross profit gone before you touch a single bid. I wrote about why the click is only half the job in my guide on turning Google Shopping clicks into sales for high-ticket products.
The seller services number points the same direction. It grew 9% while advertising grew 11%. My read is that ads are becoming the bigger lever for how Amazon earns from sellers, which is why Amazon PPC keeps getting more crowded. If you sell any product that Amazon also sells, expect Amazon to be the cheapest well-lit option at the moment a shopper compares.
On the guide, I would not read it as a consumer pullback. The revenue range is 12% to 16% growth over a year-ago quarter that was already large, and the miss is mostly in operating income, which is Amazon’s spending choice. What I would read is intensity. Amazon plans 300,000 holiday hires, which I covered in its holiday hiring plan versus UPS, and it reported over 1.5 billion items delivered same-day or overnight in the quarter, per its release. Your buyer’s delivery expectation just moved again.
Freight is the part Amazon cannot fix for you. If you ship bulky items, LTL rates are now above 80% over 2018 levels. Parcel costs are rising too, since UPS resets its fuel table on Nov. 2 and lifts rates 5.9% on Dec. 21, as I reported earlier this week. Amazon controls its own network. You do not.
Timing is the other lever. Holiday demand has already started moving earlier, and Walmart split Black Friday into three events starting Nov. 12. If Amazon is also pulling forward spend, the cheap weeks for your ads may be the ones before the big retailers go live, not the ones around Cyber Monday. Plan two budget tiers: a conservative early-November tier where your cost per click is still lower, and a protected late-November tier you only raise if your return holds.
The tools story matters too. Amazon now offers a plugin tying Seller Assistant to Claude, and Seller Central will manage listings on rival marketplaces. That gives Amazon more of your operating data and more of your workflow. My view is that you should use the tools that save you hours, but keep your customer list, your email program and your pricing logic on systems you own. I laid out how to do that in my guide to running a leaner high-ticket business with Claude.
The strategic point is simple. Marketplaces are getting better at monetizing buyers, and your edge as a high-ticket store is service: phone support, white-glove delivery, and a buyer who wants to talk to a human before spending $2,000. That edge is hard to build while also running ads, freight and inventory yourself. It is the reason many owners hand the heavy operations to my turnkey done-for-you store service and keep their attention on the sales conversation.
Amazon is selling more ads into Q4, and your costs will feel it. Want my team to scale the store you already have? See the scaling service →
Q4 Moves for Shopify Store Owners After Amazon’s Guide
Five moves, in the order I would do them this week:
- Pull your top 20 competitors’ keyword and ad positions in Semrush and list which ones Amazon, Walmart or Wayfair listings outrank. Those are the terms where your cost per click will climb first.
- Rerun your Q4 ad budget with cost per click up 10% and conversion flat. If your return falls below break-even at that level, set the floor now and decide which products get cut before Black Friday, not during it. My post on why high-ticket Google Ads need a complete conversion system shows what to fix when clicks are not the problem.
- Price-check your 20 best-selling SKUs against Amazon and confirm each supplier’s minimum advertised price policy in writing. If your supplier feed lags, set up automatic inventory syncing through Inventory Source so you stop selling items that are out of stock. Need new sources? My paid supplier directory is built for that.
- Lock down fraud and disputes before the volume hits. A single lost dispute on a $1,500 order costs you far more than one on a $50 order, so review my chargeback prevention playbook for high-ticket stores and look at ClearSale if disputes are already eating your margin.
- Build your owned channel. Set up a Klaviyo abandoned-cart flow for carts over $500 and a post-purchase flow, and use your own Shopify checkout data to segment buyers by order value. Check your cash with Finaloop so inventory and ad spend do not outrun what is in the bank.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Amazon beat or miss expectations in Q3 2026?
It missed on earnings per share ($1.89 versus $1.97 expected) and revenue ($201.9 billion versus $202.25 billion), per Yahoo Finance. AWS beat at 39% growth.
How much did Amazon’s third-party seller services grow?
It grew 9% to $46.5 billion, or 10% excluding foreign exchange, according to Amazon’s release. Advertising grew faster at 11%.
Will Amazon ads raise my Google Shopping costs?
Nothing in the report says so directly. My read is that more total ad demand across channels pushes auction prices up in Q4, so budget for higher costs. See my guide to high-ticket dropshipping for the basics of margin planning.
Should high-ticket dropshippers sell on Amazon?
It depends on the product. Amazon fees and ad pressure squeeze margins on commodity items, while custom, bulky or consultative products often do better on your own store. My best products to sell on Amazon breakdown covers where the fit is real.
Is the Q4 guide a sign of weak holiday demand?
Not on the numbers reported. Amazon guided to 12% to 16% sales growth, and the gap to consensus at the midpoint is about 0.4%. The weaker piece is operating income.
Where do I start if I do not have a niche yet?
Grab my free list of high-ticket products at my niches list and compare each against Amazon’s pricing before you commit.
Q4 is the wrong time to guess at your ad math. Want 1-on-1 coaching to launch or fix your high-ticket store? Get the coaching details →
Amazon’s report is a reminder that the biggest player is monetizing every shopper it can reach, so your job is to be the better answer when that shopper is ready to buy something expensive. I will keep tracking the numbers that change your costs. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for daily breakdowns. More breaking news coming through the day.
Related Articles
If this was useful, these go deeper:
- eBay Q3: GMV Up 15%, Take Rate Down 20 Basis Points
- Etsy Q3: Buyers Grow, Take Rate Hits 26.2%
- Amazon Shop Direct Hits 250M Products From Other Stores
- Deloitte: Holiday Shopping Is Moving Into October
- High-Ticket Niches List: 150+ Best Dropshipping Niches for 2026
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.
