Amazon.com Inc. turned the dial up on profit in Q2, booking $2.53 billion in net income in the quarter, up from $197 million in profit a year earlier. The profit sprang from a 39% increase in net sales, including 49% sales growth in AWS (Amazon’s computing business), 57% growth in subscription services revenue (Prime membership fees and content fees) and 39% growth in seller services revenue, which includes commissions paid on marketplace sales and Fulfillment By Amazon fees.
Amazon saw the least growth in revenue in selling physical goods online to consumers, at 14.4%. Revenue from Amazon’s online stores business in Q2 was $27.17 billion versus $23.75 billion a year earlier. Amazon’s online store revenue accounted for 51.4% of net sales versus 62.6% in Q2 2017.
North America’s largest online retailer generated North American net sales of $32.17 billion in the period ended June 30, up 43.8% from $22.37 billion. International sales were up 27.2%. Sales by marketplace merchants accounted for 53% of unit sales globally, up from 51% in Q2 2017 and 49% in Q2 2016.
During the second quarter, Amazon announced its intention to buy PillPack Inc., which provides an inroad into the online pharmacy business. It also merged checkout systems at Whole Foods Market with its Prime member database so that Prime members can more easily save money at Whole Foods stores. Amazon additionally continued to roll out the ability for Prime members to buy Whole Foods’ groceries online and have them delivered via Prime Now. At the end of June 2018, this service was available in 19 metropolitan areas and that number is likely to steadily grow, as Amazon says it intends to roll it out more broadly.
Prime is the membership program that provides unlimited expedited shipping to members, among other perks such as streaming video and music. Amazon says it has more than 100 million Prime members around the world but doesn’t say how many in each country.
Estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners put the U.S. member count in June at 95 million.
For the quarter ended June 30, Amazon reported:
- Net sales of $52.89, up 39.3% from $37.96 billion in Q2 2017.
- North American net sales of $32.17 billion, up 43.8% from $22.37 billion.
- International net sales of $14.61 billion, up 27.2% from $11.49 billion.
- Revenue from the sale of goods sold by Amazon online was $27.17 billion. Revenue from third-party seller services was $9.70 billion, up 38.6% from $7.00 billion. This includes commissions paid to Amazon from marketplace sellers, revenue from Fulfillment by Amazon and other services. Revenue from subscriptions, including Prime fees, was $3.41 billion, up 57.1 % from $2.17 billion. Revenue from stores, primarily Whole Foods but also Amazon Book Stores and other pop-up stores, was $4.31 billion. AWS contributed $6.11 billion in revenue, up 49.0% from $4.10 billion.
- Unit sales grew 17%, a decrease from 27% growth a year earlier.
- Worldwide shipping costs increased 31.1% to $5.99 billion from $4.57 billion.
- Fulfillment costs increased 53.7% to $7.93 billion from $5.16 billion.
- Marketing costs increased 30.0% to $2.90 from $2.23 billion.
- Technology and content costs increased 30.6% to $7.25 billion from $5.55 billion.
- General and administrative costs increased 27.0% to $1.11 billion from $874 million.
- Amazon logged $2.53 billion in net income in the quarter, up from $197 million.
For the third quarter, Amazon projects net sales of $54.0 to $57.7 billion, up between 23% and 31% versus Q3 2017.
For the six months ended June 30, Amazon reported:
- Net sales of $103.93 billion, up 41.1% from $73.67 billion in the first six months of 2017.
- North American net sales of $62.89 billion, up 45.0% from $43.36 billion.
- Net income of $4.16 billion, up 351.7% from $921 million.
Amazon is No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 1000.
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