Illustrative photo – Robotic distribution center in the premises of the Internet retailer Amazon, April 14, 2023, Kojetín in Přerovsk.
Seattle (USA) – The American online store Amazon reported a profit of 3.17 billion dollars (74.5 billion CZK) in the first quarter, while a year earlier it had a loss of 3.84 billion dollars. High demand for online shopping and cloud services contributed to the improvement. The company announced this in its results report on Thursday.
Advertisement'; }
The world's largest online retailer grew sales nine percent to $127.4 billion in the January-March period, beating market estimates. For the second quarter, the company expects sales of 127 to 133 billion dollars.
CEO Andy Jassy has focused on reducing expenses in a number of Amazon divisions due to concerns about the economic outlook. In March, he said the company would cut more jobs, which at the time were from the long-term profitable cloud and advertising services divisions. The number of layoffs at the company has increased to 27,000 since last November, nine percent of its roughly 300,000 workforce.
This week, the company said it would be recalling its Halo line of health-monitoring devices. It has promised refunds to those who have recently purchased them.
As high inflation has reduced retail demand in Europe, the world's largest online retailer is looking for new sources of revenue. An example is higher fees for food delivery for members of the Prime loyalty program in the US.
The company's shares gained up to nine percent after the publication of the economic results on Thursday.
