Another e-commerce platform emerges in North America, looking to challenge Amazon's status as a giant?

" Costco , a big-box retailer , has the potential to eventually become a massive internet e-commerce platform and pose a threat to Amazon , " said Charlie Munger , vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime business partner of Warren Buffett .

Data shows that in the past four weeks, Costco's net sales increased by 15.7% year-on-year to $18.13 billion. " This is a very good result, but comparable sales is the indicator we want to pay more attention to because this data best reflects the business development trend of a company ," said Charlie Munger .

According to Costco official data, Costco   Total comparable sales rose 14.1% in November, missing expectations of 15%. But during the period, Costco's total core profit rose 9.2%. In the U.S. , its core profit rose 9.1%, missing expectations of 11.4%, while Canada grew 7.6% and other countries grew 11.3%.

Meanwhile, similar to many e-commerce platforms, its online sales growth slowed, with e-commerce core revenue growing 11.7%, but unfortunately, this figure broke its winning streak of better-than-expected numbers .

But Munger believes this situation is normal. He said that sometimes, even for retail giants , each sales growth will not fully meet expectations. However, since the company's overall core product performance still grew by about 9% in November , it shows that Costco is gaining new customers and occupying market share.

It is reported that Costco's reporting structure is different from that of most public companies. In an era when quarterly reporting has become the norm, Costco stands out as one of the few companies that reports its sales performance on a monthly basis in addition to regular earnings reports. This timely transparency allows investors to better understand the operating status of the business .

According to The Australian Financial Review, Munger not only praised Costco's actual purchasing power , but also said he believed Costco's online sales business would grow to a point where it could potentially rival Amazon .

North American e-commerce

Costco