Amazon announced that its annual sales amounted to $108.52 billion compared to the $104.47 billion expected. The company’s first-quarter earnings strongly exceeded Wall Street expectations, as the company achieved $15.79 per share compared to expectations of $9.54.
According to press reports, a small number of companies have benefited from the online shopping boom fueled by the pandemic, such as Amazon.
The first-quarter results of the company showed continued support for the company’s business due to the pandemic. Amazon said its annual sales rose by 44% year-on-year to reach $108.5 billion.
Amazon annual sales
Amazon’s Q2 guidelines indicated that it expects continued momentum, which should help assuage investor concerns that business may slow down in the post-pandemic environment.
The company expects to generate revenues between $110 billion and $116 billion, beating Wall Street’s forecast of $108.6 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with investors: “In fact, in some – many areas, July is a big vacation month. So, it might be better to have – for customers, sellers and vendors to experiment with a different time period”.
“We experimented the other way, obviously, in 2020 by moving it into October, but we believe that it might be a better timing later in Q2. So that’s what we’re testing this year”.
Amazon’s cloud computing and advertising business continues to thrive. Amazon Web Services saw net sales of $13.5 billion during the quarter, up 32% year-on-year.
Amazon does not disclose ad sales, but it is included in the “other” category of the company, which has seen its revenue grow 77% year-on-year to $6.9 billion.
Work during the pandemic
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave a rare glimpse of how the company’s streaming and rental business was performing during the pandemic. Consumers stranded at home relied on online entertainment to stay busy.
“As Prime Video turns 10, over 175 million Prime members have streamed shows and movies in the past year, and streaming hours are up more than 70% year over year,” Bezos said in the earnings statement.
Amazon’s live streaming and rental service, Prime Video, is a major offering of the company’s Prime Video subscription service. The costs $119 annually and includes a host of other benefits such as free shipping within two days.
Bezos revealed earlier this month that the company now has 200 million subscribers on Prime, 50 million more than it did at the start of 2020.
