LAS VEGAS – Prosper Keynote speaker Jeff Cohen spoke his mind and sparked conversations in the halls at The Wynn last month. In case you weren’t there, check out the following excerpts to see what attendees were talking about.
Seller Growth on Amazon
“165,000. That’s how many new sellers joined Amazon in 2025. Sounds like a lot, right? It’s actually the lowest number in a decade. It’s down 44% from last year. This means that fewer sellers than ever are even trying to compete on Amazon.”
The Middle is Disappearing
“There’s over 100,000 sellers today that are now making a million dollars or more. That is up 67% from just four years ago. There are fewer players and bigger winners. Is Amazon getting harder or are the people figuring it out just getting better? The question is a little bit rhetorical, because the uncomfortable truth is that the middle is actually disappearing.”
Leader or Lagger?
“You’re either becoming a leader who’s capturing more traffic, more sales, and more profit, with fewer competitors—or you’re becoming a lagger—who is about to find out that good enough isn’t good enough anymore. Now, don’t answer this question yet, because I’m going to bet that most of you don’t actually know the answer, and that is part of the problem.”
What is a Leader?
“It’s important to understand who a leader is so you can understand who a leader is so you can understand what it looks like when you become one. Leaders meet three criteria: 1) Their E-commerce growth is outpacing their category. They are not just growing. They are gaining market share. 2) Their retail media maturity is rated above average or extremely sophisticated. 3) The retail media results exceed the KPI [key performance indicator] goals so they are not just spending money, but actually getting the results and they can measure the impact. To be a leader, you must be all three.”
Shifting Retail Behavior
“In Q3 of 2025, e-commerce sales accounted for 16% of total retail sales. This year, we’re projecting to hit 22% of total retail sales, and e-commerce is still growing two times the rate of total retail. So every percentage point is going to represent billions of dollars in shifted consumer behavior. Your customers are already there. Is your strategy ready to get them?”
Amazon Ecosystem
“In 2025, Amazon alone sold $830 billion worth of goods. Now that breaks down to around $255 billion in first party and $575 billion in third party sales. Seven years ago, in 2018, that number was $277 billion. It has tripled in three years. This is our playing field. So the question that we need to ask ourselves is; ‘are you positioned to compete in this playing field?’ We talked about the 165,000 sellers, but when we look at the trend, it’s actually decreasing. New sellers are not registering and active sellers are declining. In 2021, there were 2.4 million active sellers on Amazon. In 2025, it decreased to 1.6 million.”
Winners Winning Big
“Amazon has transformed from the ‘anyone can sell on this’ to ‘only the sophisticated can survive.’ The barriers to entry aren’t just getting onto Amazon anymore—it’s actually staying on. This is the real pain that we feel on a daily basis. But let me show you the flip side. This is where the professionalism of this industry has really come. The winners are winning really big. The 100,000 sellers are now generating the million dollars or more and that’s up 67% from 2021. There’s 235 sellers generating $100 million or more. Four years ago, there were only 50 sellers at this level. And let’s remember that with fewer total sellers now, this means that you as active sellers have an opportunity to get 31% more traffic than you were in 2021. Fewer players, higher stakes, bigger wins if you can actually execute.”