Amazon sales skyrocket over Christmas period
Amazon has announced a 21% increase in sales to $87.4bn (£66.5bn) for the three month period ended 31 December 2019.
The e-commerce giant also reported that operating income increased to $3bn (£2.9bn) in Q4, compared with $3.8bn (£2.8bn) in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Net income also increased to $3.3bn (£2.5bn) in the fourth quarter, compared with $3bn (£2.3bn) recorded during the same period in the previous year.
Operating cash flow increased by 25% to $38.5bn (£29.3bn) in the 12 months to 31 December, compared with $30.7bn (£23.4bn) in the same period in 2018.
Amazon said during the holiday season, independent third-party sellers, mostly small and medium-sized businesses, sold more than a billion items, including more than 100 million items shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery.
Amazon attributed the increase to its Prime feature, and founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, said: “Prime membership continues to get better for customers year after year. And customers are responding — more people joined Prime this quarter than ever before, and we now have over 150 million paid Prime members around the world.
“Prime members watched double the hours of original movies and TV shows on Prime Video this quarter compared to last year, and Amazon Originals received a record 88 nominations and 26 wins at major awards shows. A huge thank you to teams across Amazon for their dedicated work to build, innovate, and deliver for customers this holiday.”
Earlier this week, Amazon was named one of the “most loved retailers” in the UK, according to market research firm Savanta.
