24 billion products fly from the Amazon catalog
Amazon was proud of his promise to offer “everything” for decades. But now it is known that the Group is painting on a large scale: behind the project “Bend the Curve” is probably the greatest catalog cleaning in the history of the online giant.
24 billion products less – but why?
An internal document from 2024, which Business Insider is now available, gives clear goals: The product catalog should be reduced from 74 billion to under 50 billion active ASINS (clear product numbers) – by the end of 2024. Behind the measure is a strategic decision that will continue this year: Less unproductive data mean lower cloud costs.
Because every single side of the product claims resources in Amazon’s cloud infrastructure AWS. According to the 2024 report, Amazon saved around $ 22 million by removing outdated listings alone. A further $ 36 million is expected of so-called “cost avoidance” effects for 2025. For comparison: The AWS costs of the retail division still increase-to an estimated $ 5.7 billion in 2025.
Less selection in the “Everything Store”?
Officially, Amazon says that it is not about reducing the offer. “Our goal is to refine the selection, not to crop,” said a company spokesman. Products that have had no existence for years are listed or have never been sold. Despite Amazon’s assertion not to restrict the offer, a survey by Evercore Isi shows according to the report (Paywall) that the perception of customers has shifted significantly: only 68 percent keep Amazon 2024 for the platform with the best product selection – the lowest value in 12 years after a high of 84 percent in 2022.
- Initial value: 74 billion Asins (as of the end of 2023)
- The goal was: ± 50 billion ASINS by the end of 2024
- Saving 2024: USD 22 million at AWS costs
- Project 2025: +36 million USD “cost avoidance”
- Affected sellers: over 12,000
- Blocked newlistings: More than 110 million
‘Everything available’ redefined ‘
At the same time, Amazon also takes action among third -party providers. With the “Creation Throttling” feature, a technical lock was introduced in 2024, the sellers with extremely large but inactive catalogs blocked. According to internal data, over 110 million new listings were prevented. At least 12,000 seller accounts with over 100,000 items and zero sales in the previous year were affected. Adjustment caused irritation internally like external – also, since the project has so far largely been silent.
After the wave of cleansing, some dealers believed that all of their accounts were blocked, although according to Amazon, only unproductive parts were affected. In the future, the company therefore announces clearer communication and more precise analysis of deleted data. In any case, the project shows that Amazon wants to redefine its role as “Everything Store” – the gigantic data care project should help.
