How much do the top ecommerce companies make every day? The short answer: hundreds of millions of dollars, every 24 hours, without pause. Take a company's annual revenue from its fiscal-year reporting and divide by 365, and you get a daily figure that puts the scale of Amazon, JD.com, Alibaba, Walmart, and eBay into perspective.
This article walks through those daily revenue figures, explains where the numbers come from, and then does something most "biggest ecommerce companies" lists skip: it pulls out the lessons that actually apply to a mid-market merchant doing seven or eight figures a year. You will never out-spend Amazon. You can absolutely out-execute your direct competitors.
A quick note on the data. The figures below come from fiscal-year reporting at the time this article was originally researched, primarily FY2019 and FY2020 filings. Every one of these companies has grown since then, some dramatically, so treat the numbers as a documented snapshot rather than a live scoreboard. The daily math and the takeaways hold either way.
The daily revenue math, explained
Daily revenue here is simple division: reported annual revenue divided by 365. It is a blunt instrument. It flattens seasonality, ignores the difference between marketplace commission revenue and direct retail revenue, and says nothing about profit. But it is the clearest way to feel the gap between the top of ecommerce and everyone else.
One more distinction matters. Amazon, Walmart, and JD.com book much of what customers pay as their own revenue because they sell inventory directly. eBay and Alibaba run marketplaces, so their revenue is mostly fees and commissions on a far larger volume of gross merchandise value flowing through their platforms. Keep that in mind as you read the numbers.
5. eBay: roughly $30 million per day
eBay helped invent online retail as a venue where any individual or business could list nearly anything, with its auction model setting it apart from day one. eBay takes a cut of every transaction, which grew its revenue from $4.5 billion in 2005 to almost $11 billion as reported for 2020. That works out to about $29.6 million in revenue per day.
Remember the marketplace caveat: that figure is eBay's fee revenue, not the total value of goods sold on the platform, which is many times larger. In early 2020 the company also completed the sale of StubHub to Viagogo, netting proceeds of over $3 billion, a reminder that even the giants prune their portfolios to focus on the core marketplace.
4. Walmart: about $112 million per day in ecommerce alone
Walmart opened its first store in 1962 and did not launch its Site to Store online pickup program until 2007. By its FY2019 reporting, total company revenue was $514.4 billion, but ecommerce accounted for roughly 8% of that, close to $41 billion, or about $112 million in online revenue per day. At the time, Walmart held around 5% of the US ecommerce market, second to Amazon.
The interesting part is the trajectory. In its Q1 FY2021 reporting during the early pandemic period, Walmart posted ecommerce sales growth of 74%, driven by online grocery, delivery, and curbside pickup. A brick-and-mortar giant proved it could convert physical footprint, about 11,500 stores across 27 countries at the time, into an online fulfillment advantage. That omnichannel play has only accelerated since.
3. Alibaba: around $54 million per day
Founded in 1999 in a Hangzhou apartment, Alibaba built an ecosystem rather than a single store: Taobao and Tmall for retail, Alipay for payments, AliExpress for cross-border sales. Its FY2019 reported revenue of approximately $56 billion translates to about $53.8 million per day.
That revenue figure dramatically understates the volume moving through Alibaba's platforms. Gross merchandise value across its marketplaces exceeded $768 billion in the same reporting period. Like eBay, Alibaba earns commissions and advertising fees on transactions rather than booking the full sale, which is why its revenue looks small next to Amazon's while its transaction volume rivals anyone's.
2. JD.com: about $227 million per day
JD.com, founded in 1998, is the direct-retail counterweight to Alibaba in China. Unlike marketplace-first competitors, JD owns its logistics end to end, with over 500 warehouses and 7,000 delivery stations at the time of its FY2019 reporting, plus early experiments in rural drone delivery announced in 2017. Walmart holds a stake in the company as a strategic partner.
JD's reported revenue for 2019 was $82.8 billion, a 23% increase over 2018 and more than 12 times its 2012 revenue. That is roughly $227.1 million per day. Because JD sells inventory directly, its revenue-per-day figure is more comparable to Amazon's retail business than to Alibaba's commission model.
1. Amazon: about $768 million per day
Amazon started as an online bookstore in 1994 and became the reference point for everything in ecommerce: selection, delivery speed, subscription loyalty through Prime, and a second business in AWS that funds experimentation everywhere else.
In its FY2019 reporting, Amazon generated $280.5 billion in revenue, a 20% increase over 2018. That is roughly $768.5 million in revenue every single day. In the same period, Amazon held an estimated 38.7% share of US ecommerce sales, with Walmart and eBay each in the single digits. Amazon's scale has grown substantially in the years since, so today's daily figure is well above this documented snapshot.
What these numbers teach mid-market merchants
The daily figures are fun trivia. The patterns behind them are the useful part, because every one of them scales down.
They obsess over conversion, not just traffic. Amazon did not win on ad spend. It won by removing friction: one-click checkout, saved payment methods, reliable delivery estimates, reviews that answer objections. A mid-market store that treats conversion rate optimization as an ongoing program, not a one-time project, is copying the right habit. When IWD rebuilt the buying experience for QC Supply, conversion rate rose 18.29% and revenue grew 61.72%. You can read the full breakdown in our QC Supply case study.
They pick a fulfillment promise and keep it. JD.com's entire moat is logistics customers can trust. You do not need 500 warehouses; you need accurate delivery dates on the product page and a shipping experience that matches what checkout promised.
They diversify revenue without diluting focus. Walmart layered ecommerce onto stores. Alibaba layered payments onto marketplaces. For a normal merchant, the equivalent is adding a second profitable channel, such as B2B ordering, subscriptions, or marketplaces, on top of a healthy core store rather than instead of one.
They re-platform and re-invest before they are forced to. Walmart's 74% ecommerce growth quarter did not come from luck. It came from years of platform investment made before the demand spike arrived. If your current platform is the bottleneck, a planned replatforming project beats an emergency one every time.
What actually moves the needle at normal scale
At the top of ecommerce, growth comes from billions in infrastructure. At mid-market scale, it usually comes from a shorter list:
- Fix what is measurably broken first. Slow templates, checkout errors, and broken mobile flows cost real revenue daily. A structured health check audit finds them faster than guesswork.
- Design for the buyer you have. The giants A/B test everything. You can get most of the benefit from disciplined, research-driven ecommerce web design focused on your highest-traffic pages.
- Sequence the roadmap deliberately. Most merchants do not lack ideas; they lack prioritization. An outside ecommerce consulting partner earns its fee by putting the highest-return work first.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Amazon make per day?
Based on its FY2019 reporting of $280.5 billion in annual revenue, Amazon earned roughly $768.5 million per day. The company has grown considerably since that filing, so its current daily revenue is higher than this documented snapshot.
How is daily revenue calculated for these companies?
By dividing reported annual revenue from each company's fiscal-year filings by 365. It is an average, so it smooths over seasonal peaks like Black Friday and Singles' Day, and it measures revenue, not profit.
Why does Alibaba's daily revenue look small compared to Amazon's?
Business model. Alibaba primarily earns commissions and advertising fees on marketplace transactions, while Amazon books direct retail sales as revenue. Alibaba's gross merchandise value, over $768 billion in its FY2019 reporting period, tells the fuller story of its transaction volume.
Which company is the biggest ecommerce retailer in the US?
Amazon, by a wide margin. In the FY2019 reporting period covered here, it held an estimated 38.7% of US ecommerce sales, with Walmart and eBay each holding around 5% or less.
What can a smaller store realistically learn from these giants?
Copy their habits, not their budgets: relentless conversion optimization, a fulfillment promise you actually keep, disciplined platform investment, and adding new revenue channels only after the core store is healthy.
Related reading
How IWD increased QC Supply's revenue by 61.72% · Ecommerce consulting services · Ecommerce replatforming · Ecommerce health check audit
Work with IWD
IWD Agency has been building high-performing ecommerce stores since 2008, with 300+ brands served and 94% client retention. If you want the mid-market version of what the giants do, prioritized, measured, and executed, start with an ecommerce health check audit or talk to our ecommerce consulting team.