Amazon was able to boost its turnover in the last quarter of 2019: strong Christmas sales and a surge in Prime subscribers made sure quarterly results were significantly better than expected.
Prime surge
The e-commerce giant achieved a 21 % turnover growth to 87.4 billion dollars (79 billion euros), while analysts were ‘only’ expecting 86 billion dollars in turnover. Operational profit went up only slightly, from 3.8 to 3.9 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros), while net profit thrashed expectations of 1.2 to 2.9 billion dollars and surged to 3.3 billion dollars (3 billion euros).
The third quarter profit drop, caused by investments in the expansion of benefits for Prime members, seems to already have paid dividends in the fourth quarter. The number of products that are available for free next-day delivery was expanded significantly, meaning that – according to CEO Jeff Bezos – last quarter saw more new subscribers join than ever before. Prime now has over 150 million members worldwide.
For the first quarter of 2020, Amazon aims for a turnover bracket of 69 to 73 billion dollars (62 to 66 billion euros), while operational profit is expected to land between 3 and 4.2 billion dollars (2.7 to 3.8 billion euros).
