Q2 earnings, new title display, and AI person labeling

Amazon Q2 2026 earnings: growth continues to accelerate

Amazon generated USD 200.6 billion in total revenue in the second quarter of 2026. That equals growth of 19.6% versus Q2 2025 (USD 167.7 billion) and again exceeds the already strong growth rate from Q1 2026 (16.6%). The North America segment reached USD 116.2 billion (+16.1% YoY), while the International segment came in at USD 42.2 billion (+14.8% YoY). The growth acceleration from the prior quarter therefore continues in both geographic segments.

Advertising and AWS remain growth drivers

Amazon's advertising business continues to grow at a double-digit rate and is even picking up: In Q2 2026, Advertising Services generated USD 19.809 billion in revenue – growth of 26.2% year over year, after 23.9% in Q1 2026. AWS is also growing as strongly as it has in years: With USD 42.232 billion in revenue and an increase of 36.8% YoY, the cloud business continues its growth path from prior quarters (28.4% in Q1 2026, 23.6% in Q4 2025).

Marketplace revenue from sellers is accelerating again

Revenue from Third-Party Seller Services stood at USD 46.780 billion in Q2 2026, equaling growth of 15.9% versus the prior-year quarter. That is significantly higher than in Q1 2026 (13.9%) and the quarters before. For sellers and vendors, that means the marketplace business is gaining further momentum, and competition for visibility is likely to increase accordingly.

Retail grows steadily, share of total revenue keeps falling

Online Stores revenue stood at USD 70.432 billion in Q2 2026. That equals growth of 14.6% year over year and is again above the prior-quarter figure (11.9%). Despite this solid growth, retail's share of total revenue continues to decline: It currently stands at 35.11%, after 35.40% in Q1 2026 and 38.89% in Q4 2025. The trend of the marketplace steadily gaining weight therefore continues.

Outlook

If the current momentum continues, Advertising and Marketplace are likely to remain the strongest-growing segments in the coming quarters and further expand their share of total revenue, while the retail share tends to keep falling. For sellers and vendors, that means visibly intensifying competition for visibility and rising advertising costs.

At the same time, the new Amazon figures need context: Prime Day 2026 ran from June 23 to 26 and thus fell in the second quarter, whereas last year it ran from July 8 to 11 in the third quarter. Q2 2026 therefore includes a Prime Day, while Q2 2025 does not, so part of the momentum may have been pulled forward. In the third quarter, that effect could reverse accordingly, because Q3 2025 still benefited from Prime Day, while Q3 2026 will not. Whether Amazon is actually growing faster operationally, or whether Q2 mainly benefited from the shifted event, can therefore only be assessed more reliably once the third-quarter figures are in.

Amazon continues testing new title display

Amazon is apparently still rolling out the new product title display only gradually. Based on observations so far, the changeover has not gone as smoothly as hoped throughout: In various tests, title and highlight were changed multiple times, sometimes with visible display issues. On desktop, a vertical divider between title and highlight appeared in some cases; in others, wording looked incomplete or grammatically off. On mobile, titles were also cut off in places.

Tests apply only to individual products

The many adjustments suggest Amazon is currently testing different variants to find which display works best for customers and drives better conversion rates. At the same time, the tests are likely meant to surface technical issues and display errors. As things stand, not all products are affected – only individual listings.

Update for product highlight

From August 10, Amazon plans to gradually introduce a revised display in which the highlight appears clearly below the title on both desktop and mobile. Until now, after the change, title and highlight sometimes appeared in one line and were hard to tell apart due to the same color and size. Amazon has also confirmed that title and highlight content are both considered equally for search in search results. For sellers and vendors, that means: Not all relevant information has to sit in the title itself.

Amazon requires labeling for AI-generated people in listings and A+ content

Amazon is tightening the rules for image and video assets in offers and A+ content. Sellers must now label photorealistic AI-generated people with specific metadata before upload.

Requirement applies only to photorealistic AI people

Specifically, Amazon requires affected files to be tagged before upload with the keyword contains-synthetic-performer in the XMP field dc:subject. On that basis, Amazon can show customers a corresponding notice. The requirement applies only when an image or video contains entirely AI-generated photorealistic people. No labeling is required when an image or video:

• shows only real people, even if they were edited with AI tools
• shows only characters from movies, series, streaming content, documentaries, video games, or other creative works
• shows no people
• shows no photorealistic people

How to set and verify the labeling on macOS, Windows, or via a command-line tool is explained in Amazon's guide – click here.

You can find our popular Round Table and other news formats on our landing page.

Amazon expands Product Opportunity Explorer with idea check for new products

Amazon has added a new feature called Validate Product Ideas to Product Opportunity Explorer. Sellers can use it to pre-check a product idea much more concretely before investing in sourcing, listing setup, or launch. Several inputs are combined for this, including:

• Marketplace
• Product title
• Category
• Price
• Description
• Three bullet points

On that basis, Amazon creates a report that not only situates the product idea in general terms, but also matches it directly against market data and existing offers. What is new above all is that Amazon is moving early product evaluation more strongly into its own assessment tool and helping sellers reach a structured first read more quickly.

New feature combines product assessment and customer feedback

The new feature brings several analyses together in one step. These include assessments of competitive positioning, customer fit, product maturity, and market potential. That is complemented by similar products, price analyses, seasonal trends, and demographic data.

There is also an evaluation of customer feedback. Amazon highlights what customers appreciate about comparable products, which problems they mention, and where that opens opportunities for a stronger product concept.

For sellers, the main benefit is that a product idea can be evaluated faster and in a more structured way. Instead of piecing together individual data points separately in Product Opportunity Explorer, Amazon bundles the most important signals into one report. That can help sharpen concepts before launch – or discard them early.

In 2026, we are focusing on new marketing channels to keep you up to date with Amazon news: Our REVOIC podcast is published every Friday, and our YouTube channel has been fully revamped and now delivers fresh content regularly.

We look forward to your feedback!

Amazon continues to expand Seller Central: New customizable overviews for products, shipments, and FBA inventory are meant to bundle operational tasks such as listing maintenance, inventory control, and shipping oversight in one place more quickly going forward.

The European Commission has fined AliExpress EUR 550 million for Digital Services Act violations; for Amazon sellers in price-sensitive categories, that could raise cost pressure on cheap import competitors in the EU and ease price competition somewhat.

India is easing inventory-based e-commerce for export cases and for the first time allows foreign platforms such as Amazon to store and ship locally sourced goods directly for overseas markets.

Amazon Ads is expanding Brand+ and Performance+ in Amazon DSP with new AI features, including additional optimization signals from first-party audience data, new audio inventory, and further model improvements for campaign management.