Which online retailer started as a bookseller in 1994?

The online retailer that started as a bookseller in 1994 is Amazon. Jeff Bezos founded the company after developing the idea for an internet-based bookstore with a far larger selection than a physical shop could hold.

Amazon began operations in 1995 from Bezos’s garage in Bellevue, Washington, under the name Amazon.com. Books were a practical first category because millions of titles could be listed in a catalog, while customers did not need to examine each copy in person before ordering. The company initially shipped books from rented facilities and Bezos’s home area.

Amazon was incorporated in 1994 as Cadabra, Inc., before Bezos changed the name. He chose “Amazon” partly to evoke the scale of the Amazon River and to place the company favorably in alphabetical listings. The business later expanded into music, video, electronics, household goods, third-party marketplaces, cloud computing, advertising, and logistics.

A common mix-up is treating 1994 as the public launch date. The company was founded and incorporated that year, but the website began selling to customers in 1995. Amazon’s original bookseller identity remains visible in its early history, even though its modern revenue comes from a much broader group of businesses.