Amazon's e-commerce sales fell 4%, and the real economy is recovering

Amazon's own online store sales fell 4% in the second quarter, from $53.2 billion a year ago to $50.9 billion.

Data shows that Amazon's total revenue in the second quarter increased by 7% to $121.23 billion, higher than analysts' forecast of $119 billion. However, its e-commerce sales did not grow with the increase in overall revenue, but fell by 4%, accounting for less than 42% of its overall net sales of $121.2 billion, but five years ago, Amazon's online store sales accounted for about 60% of its total sales. It is understood that the decline in sales may be more due to the rapid growth of Amazon's other businesses.

As the real economy recovers, Amazon's physical store sales have increased significantly .

Sales at Amazon’s retail stores , including Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, grew 12.5% ​​to more than $4.7 billion in the company’s fiscal second quarter, according to the company’s recent earnings report . The vast majority of Amazon’s stores are made up of Whole Foods stores, which now number more than 500. The specialty chain continues to open stores at a steady pace, announcing five store openings in July alone. Amazon also announced the addition of its Just Walk Out system and newly improved Dash Carts to Whole Foods stores, suggesting that Amazon sees its proprietary technology as a way to further boost chain sales.

Some believe that inflationary pressures are one of the reasons for Amazon's declining e-commerce sales, but Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said that although inflationary pressures from fuel, energy and transportation costs persist, it is impossible to determine whether continued inflation in the United States is related to the decline in sales. Although we saw Amazon's e-commerce sales decline for the second consecutive quarter and its retail business was slightly weaker, it made up for the decline through fees from Prime customers and marketplace sellers. Data showed that subscription sales increased by 10% to US$8.7 billion, seller service revenue increased by 9.1% to US$27.4 billion, and advertising sales increased by 17.5% to US$8.8 billion.

In recent years, the e-commerce industry has had to withstand the pressure of supply chain crisis, economic inflation, and the disappearance of the epidemic dividend. In addition, under the pandemic, the real economy has shown a clear trend of recovery, and the sales growth rate of offline retail stores has exceeded that of e-commerce retail. However, this does not mean that the e-commerce industry is pessimistic, as the overall demand for mobile e-commerce is still very strong. Although Amazon's e-commerce sales have declined, its overall business revenue is very substantial.

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Real Economy