Amazon Prepares for Holiday Sales Amid COVID-19 Challenges

The company had re-fashioned operations for COVID-19 precautions, though more than 19,000 workers caught the virus.

Amazon Prepares for Holiday Sales Amid COVID-19 Challenges

Amazon has worked to avoid a repeat of 2013 season when delays left some without gifts on Christmas Day

Highlights
  • Amazon now handles more deliveries in house
  • This year it moved its marketing event Prime Day to October
  • The extra weeks of shopping may translate into additional sales
Advertisement

Amazon on Thursday will announce its latest financial results, and Wall Street wants to know if it can keep up with shoppers' heightened demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Just three months ago, the world's largest online retailer posted the biggest profit in its 26-year history. Governments' stay-at-home orders prompted consumers to shift purchases to web marketplaces such as Amazon, while brick-and-mortar rivals shuttered shops.

Amazon has reaped rewards from this but not without challenges. For a time, Amazon limited its warehousing services to essential goods. The company re-fashioned operations for COVID-19 precautions, though more than 19,000 workers caught the virus, and some demanded site closures. Customers experienced slower-than-usual deliveries.

Some analysts, including Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research, want to know if Amazon can manage such challenges while demand climbs with fourth-quarter holiday shopping. The company typically addresses such questions during an analyst call after its financial report.

"Do they have the logistics and delivery capacity to handle order volumes?" Sebastian asked.

Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Securities, cited anecdotes about recent warehousing constraints for certain larger items. "I think you're going to have a disastrous fourth quarter in terms of demand overwhelming them once again," he said.

Amazon has long worked to avoid a repeat of the 2013 season when delays left some without gifts on Christmas Day. The company now handles more deliveries in house, and this year it moved its marketing event Prime Day, usually in July to October, letting shoppers place holiday orders early.

Pachter said, "They wanted us to start thinking 'holiday' now, before the crazy rush that begins Black Friday."

The extra weeks of shopping may translate into additional sales, with higher-income households offsetting those with depressed budgets for holiday spending.

Analysts on average expect revenue of $92.7 billion (roughly Rs. 6,86,179 crores) for the just-ended third quarter, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

© Thomson Reuters 2020


Are iPhone 12 mini, HomePod mini the Perfect Apple Devices for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Amazon, Black Friday, Prime Day
Micromax In Series Design Teased Ahead of Phone Launch in November
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »