GMV.
aka gross merchandise value, gross merchandise volume, total sales value
The total price tag of everything sold. Not the same as what the company keeps.
What it actually means
GMV, gross merchandise value, is the total value of goods sold through a platform or store over a period, before subtracting fees, discounts, returns or costs. Marketplaces use it to show scale, because the money passing through is far larger than the slice they earn.
If a marketplace's sellers ring up US$100 million in orders and the marketplace keeps 12% in commissions and ads, GMV is US$100 million and revenue is US$12 million. Both numbers are true. They answer different questions: how big is the activity, and how big is the business.
For a store that owns its stock, GMV and gross sales are nearly the same thing. The gap opens on platforms, where most goods belong to third-party sellers. ECDB estimates Amazon's 2025 GMV at about US$847 billion; that is the value of what was bought there, not Amazon's income.
Where you'll hear it
We did 40 million in GMV last year, up 80%, at a take rate of 11%.
Translation: customers spent 40 million on the platform and the company kept about 4.4 million of it. The 80% is growth in activity, which is the bit they want you to remember.
Also in earnings calls for any marketplace, in startup pitch decks, and in news headlines that compare platforms, which almost always rank by GMV because it is the biggest number available.
The pop-culture version
A film takes US$500 million at the box office and the headline says it made half a billion. It did not. Cinemas keep roughly half the ticket price, and the studio still has to cover production and marketing.
Box office tells you how many people showed up. It does not tell you who got rich. GMV is the box office: a measure of how much the audience spent, not what landed in the company's account.
That is why a film can break records and lose money, and a marketplace can post enormous GMV and still report a loss.
GMV is still useful. Growing GMV means customers and sellers are showing up. It just has to travel with take rate and margin before anyone celebrates.
Say it like you mean it
“GMV was 40 million, net revenue 4.4 million, and returns ran at 6% of GMV.”
Gives the activity, what the company kept, and how much came back.“We made 40 million last year.”
If that is GMV, nobody made 40 million. Mixing up GMV and revenue is the fastest way to lose a finance person's trust.When you see a huge e-commerce number, ask one question: is that GMV or revenue? The answer changes the story by a factor of ten.
The world's largest platforms ranked by GMV, and who leads in each country.
Decoded next
Decoded by the Kurums editorial team. Kurums Decoded translates the language of business for people who are new to it. Definitions are kept short on purpose; the serious version above goes deep. Nothing here is financial, legal or career advice.