Amazon expands as etail shrinks
Post-Meltdown sales up 18 per cent
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Unlike the average etailer, Amazon actually enjoyed the post-Meltdown holiday season.
In the fourth quarter, according to those clever net watchers at comScore, etail spending shrunk for the first time in history. But the grand dame of online shops grew revenue 18 per cent year-over-year, from $5.67bn to $6.7bn. And profits jumped nine per cent, from $207 to $225m.
During a conference call with reporters and analysts, chief executive Jeff Bezos said the company has not noticed any customer attrition due to the melting economy. Nonetheless, Bezos and Co. were cautious in predicting performance for the current quarter, guessing that first-quarter revenues will fall somewhere between $4.525bn and $4.925bn.
In any event, Wall Street was pleased. Amazon's fourth-quarter numbers beat those of the Wall Street guessmen, and at last check, its shares were up neatly 13 per cent in after-hours trading.
Amazon chief financial officer Thomas J. Szkutak was particularly pleased with Kindle demand during the fourth quarter - but he didn't say how many people acting purchased the thing. The etailer's ebook was out of stock for much of the quarter. Rumor has it a new Kindle incarnation will arrive next month.
In North America, Amazon's overall sales jumped 18 per cent, and across the company's UK, German, Japanese, French, and Chinese sites, revenues climbed 19 per cent.
Amazon now has more than 88 million active accounts worldwide, a 16 per cent increase, and its total shopper count was up 28 per cent. ®
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COMMENTS
Amazon - worse than Nike
Just discovered something called Amazon Turks, jeez this is something like out of one of those sci-fi dystopian futures. All those descriptions of nice shiny things in the internet shopping mall were created by an army of slave wage labour toiling away for a real pittance in the virtual world, feeding the monster that has become online trading.
The current banking crisis was caused by global bankers having no responsibilities and no accountabilities.
This is worse, a huge number of isolated workers with no representation and no rights have been enslaved by the machine.
This is an outrageous use of what is supposed to be an enabling technology, it seems to me to only be enabling the superrich corporations to make even more obscene profits for their fat cat directors and shareholders.
If I need a book I'll go to my library (where they pay at least minimum wage)
You have to remember
Amazon traded at a huge lose for many years, it is actually harder to start an ecommerce site and make it a success then if you go the bricks and mortar route. Once in bricks and mortar then going to the web is wise.
Amazon's fortunes turned round when it brokered a deal with Border's Bookstore. Now that Amazon has momentum it should do very well, but it was a gamble at the start and for quite a few years. Most of the big names in ecommerce, started out with a loss and the better ones kept that to one year.
Breaking into ecommerce at the moment is very hard, you need to have the right people on board, with the necessary expertise, experience and the ability to adapt very quickly to market conditions, all of that has to be backed with a sizeable chunk of change, and at the moment we all know money is too tight to mention.
Amazon Rock
Got all my uni textbooks from amazon, saved me a fortune. Maybe thats why they aren't failing....their primary income is from students?
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