Faced with rising costs of food and gas, Americans have dialed back purchases on discretionary items, forcing Walmart, Target and other retailers with extra inventory to offer more discounts on items like electronics. It comes as the pandemic-induced consumer reliance on online shopping dies down and Americans are shifting their spending habits away from things like home improvements towards traveling and eating out.Ĭonsumers and businesses are also feeling the weight of surging inflation, which is at its highest in 40 years. “I don’t think you’ll see us hiring at the same pace we did over the last year, or in last few years,” Olsavsky said, adding the company will continue to hire targeted positions for profitable units, like its advertising business and AWS.ĭespite Wall Street’s celebration, the e-commerce and tech giant’s revenue growth still landed at a relatively sluggish 7%, about the same as the first quarter of this year and its slowest in about two decades.

The performance of the broader economy is expected to shape its hiring plans moving forward. The company had 1.52 million employees by the end of June, down 6.1% from the first quarter.

On the labor side, Amazon has been able to reduced its headcount through attrition and staffing levels were more in-line with demand, Olsavsky said. While Amazon’s advertising unit, another burgeoning moneymaker, pulled in $8.76 billion, an 18% increase from last year. Costs are outpacing sales and growth, though Amazon can dip into other profit pools - like AWS - to protect its overall performance, he said.ĪWS, which is facing increasing competition from Microsoft Azure, earned $19.74 billion in revenue, a 33% jump from last year. He said the company is also planning to shift capital investments towards its cloud-computing unit AWS.Īmazon’s retail operations both internationally and in North America reported operating losses, showing the company is suffering the same fate as Walmart and Target, Saunders said. The company has been subleasing some of its warehouses, ending some of its leases and deferring construction on others to deal with the problem.Īmazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said during a media call Thursday the company is slowing down its expansion plans for this year and the next to better align with customer demand. But as consumers shifted their habits, Amazon found itself with too many workers and too much space, which added billions in extra costs. rose almost 14% in after-hours trading.īetween 20, Amazon nearly doubled the number of warehouses and data centers it leased and owned to keep up with rising consumer demand. The results came as the company attempts to navigate shifting consumer demand and higher costs, while curtailing the glut of warehouses it acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysts had been expecting a 12-cent profit in the latest quarter, according to FactSet.īut Wall Street was cheered by Amazon’s $121.2 billion in revenue, topping expectations of $119 billion. It posted a loss of $3.84 billion in this year’s first quarter, its first quarterly loss since 2015, which was also marked by a large Rivian write-down.

That compared to a profit of $7.78 billion a year ago. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant also said it is making progress in controlling some of the excess costs from its massive expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.Īmazon lost $2.03 billion, or 20 cents per share, in the three-month period ended June 30, driven by a $3.9 billion write-down of the value of its stock investment in electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive. NEW YORK (AP) - Amazon on Thursday reported its second-consecutive quarterly loss but its revenue topped Wall Street expectations, sending its stock sharply higher.

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