June 2, 2025, 12:13 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
According to a new report, Amazon has deleted numerous products. There’s a specific reason for this.
Amazon’s product range is unparalleled in the international online shopping market: Until recently, there were reportedly up to 74 billion products in its inventory. But that came to an end in late 2024, as Amazon allegedly deleted numerous products. The reason for this was said to be cost-cutting measures. Up to 24 billion items were reportedly affected.
Amazon Deleted Products Due to Cloud Costs
This information comes from a new report by Business Insider, which claims to have gained insights into relevant company documents. The initiative is attributed to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who reportedly named it “Bend The Curve.” TECHBOOK has asked Amazon for confirmation but has yet to receive a response. The goal was to streamline many offerings by the end of 2024. Each product requires its own page, which is managed in the cloud–this consumes numerous resources, especially money.
Therefore, Amazon decided to remove about 24 billion of these product pages. This means Amazon deleted about one-third of all products. The focus was reportedly on the so-called ASIN numbers (Amazon Standard Identification Number).
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Major Cleanup Streamlines Offerings
While Amazon was able to save money with “Bend the Curve,” that’s just one aspect. The cleanup is also likely to benefit customers.
Amazon reportedly targeted so-called “unproductive items” and their associated product pages. These are goods whose pages haven’t been updated for more than two years or that suppliers can no longer deliver due to lack of stock. Amazon also purged incomplete or faulty product pages.
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Furthermore, since 2024, Amazon has also been blocking new listings from notably underperforming seller accounts. This affects those that haven’t sold anything in the previous 12 months. So far, the shipping giant has withheld more than 100 million products.
Cost Savings Due to High Expenses
According to the report, the company saved up to $22 million in operating costs for the servers through this action. Another round is planned for 2025, with potential savings of up to $36 million.
However, in light of total expenses, this isn’t much: These are expected to reach up to $5.7 billion for the AWS cloud infrastructure alone in 2025–an increase of 27 percent compared to the previous year.