Shares in Amazon fell by 20% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company raised caution over sales ahead of the crucial Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he was “encouraged by the steady progress we’re making on lowering costs in our stores fulfilment network and have a set of initiatives that we’re methodically working through that we believe will yield a stronger cost structure for the business moving forward.
“There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we’ll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets.”
Amazon is just the latest in a series of technology companies to disappoint Wall Street investors, following a further decline in Facebook advertising revenues and the prospect of lower growth at both Alphabet and Microsoft.
Net sales increased 15% to $127.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with $110.8 billion in the third quarter 2021. But International segment sales decreased 5% year-over-year to $27.7 billion when foreign exchange is taken into account. There was a 12% increase when the charges are taken out of the equation.
AWS segment sales increased 27% year-over-year to $20.5 billion or increased 28% excluding changes in foreign exchange rates.
Amazon has recently expanded to Belgium where a version of Prime has been launched for customers. The Prime programme takes in expedited delivery alongside video and audio options and discounts on services such as Deliveroo.
Prime Video has premiered several new entertainment series, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day, the biggest debut in Prime Video history, and closing in on 100 million viewers to date.
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