Direct retail sales are poised to represent less than half of Amazon’s business for the first time in its history — a fundamental shift that reflects the e-commerce giant’s expansion beyond its roots as an online store.
Revenue from Amazon Web Services, Amazon Prime, third-party seller services, online advertising and other services added up to 49.3% of Amazon’s business in the second quarter. The total almost matched the company’s revenue from online and physical stores, and appears to be on a trajectory to surpass them in the future.
That’s one of several takeaways from Amazon’s second-quarter earnings report, released Thursday afternoon. On this episode of Day 2, GeekWire’s Podcast about everything Amazon, we nerd out over Amazon’s numbers.
Joining the discussion are two online retail industry veterans who pay close attention to Amazon’s business:
- Our podcast collaborator, Jason Boyce, former Top 200 third-party seller, founder of Avenue7Media and co-author of The Amazon Jungle.
- Andrea Leigh, vice president of strategy and insights at Ideoclick, a Seattle-based e-commerce technology and services firm that works with vendors to Amazon’s first-party retail sales, and third-party sellers. Leigh was an Amazon general manager and retail category leader for nearly 10 years.
Coverage of Amazon earnings:
- Amazon sales of $113B disappoint Wall Street but profits of $7.8B exceed expectations
- Amazon’s advertising business is surging amid industry-wide ad sales boom for tech giants
- Amazon boosting wages and hiring incentives to keep up in competitive labor market
Listen above, or subscribe to Day 2 in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
