Amazon Q2 sales up 20% to $63.4 bn; net income increases to $2.6 bn

Amazon.com’s net income increased to $2.6 billion in the second quarter, or $5.22 per diluted share, compared with net income of $2.5 billion, or $5.07 per diluted share, in Q2 of 2018.

Net sales increased 20 per cent to $63.4 billion in Q2, compared with $52.9 billion in Q2 2018. Excluding the $814 million unfavourable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 21 per cent, compared with Q2 2018.

Operating income increased to $3.1 billion in the second quarter, compared with operating income of $3.0 billion in second quarter 2018.

“Customers are responding to Prime’s move to one-day delivery – we’ve received a lot of positive feedback and seen accelerating sales growth,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO. “Free one-day delivery is now available to Prime members on more than ten million items, and we’re just getting started. A big thank you to the team for continuing to make life easier for customers.”

Operating cash flow increased 65 per cent to $36.0 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $21.8 billion for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2018. Free cash flow increased to $25.0 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $10.4 billion for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2018. Free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations increased to $16.1 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $4.1 billion for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2018. Free cash flow less equipment finance leases and principal repayments of all other finance leases and financing obligations increased to $13.0 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $546 million for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2018.

Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 510 million on June 30, 2019, compared with 506 million one year ago.

Amazon India introduced the Packaging-Free Shipment programme in nine cities, which reduces waste by shipping orders in their original packaging and combining multiple shipments in a reusable crate or a corrugate box. This is one of several initiatives that support Shipment Zero, Amazon’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon.

Prime Day

Prime Day was once again the largest shopping event in Amazon history with more than one million deals exclusively for Prime members. Over the two days of Prime Day, on July 15 and 16, sales surpassed the previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Prime Day was also the biggest event ever for Amazon devices, when comparing two-day periods. Amazon welcomed more new Prime members on July 15 than any previous day, and almost as many on July 16 – making these the two biggest days ever for member signups. In addition, Prime members received tens of millions of dollars in savings when shopping from Whole Foods Market and bought more than $2 billion of products from independent small and medium-sized businesses. Millions of people worldwide streamed Prime Day events, including the Prime Day.

Alexa

Amazon announced the new Alexa Skill Blueprints that let families create personalised skills for Alexa-enabled devices. The number of Alexa-compatible smart home devices continues to grow, with more than 60,000 smart home products from over 7,400 unique brands.

There are now hundreds of third-party devices with Alexa built-in. Customers can access Alexa at home through select TVs from LG and ecobee’s newest smart thermostat, or on-the-go with new headphones from Bose and Jabra. Alexa is now integrated into even more vehicles from Lexus and Toyota, as well as select BMW and MINI vehicles in Germany and the UK. Additionally, Garmin, iOttie, and Nextbase launched new automotive accessories that make it easy for customers to add Alexa to their current vehicle.

Amazon continues to expand Alexa’s features and capabilities. Alexa Announcements, which allows customers to broadcast a one-way message to their Alexa devices, is now available in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Mexico. Additionally, customers in the UK can make outbound calls with Alexa Outbound Calling, and with eligible Vodafone plans, can place and receive calls from an Echo device using their mobile number.

Fire TV

Fire TV now has more than 34 million active users worldwide and continues to be the #1 streaming media player family in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, and India.

Amazon and Google launched the official YouTube app on Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs, and released the Prime Video app for Chromecast, Chromecast built-in devices, and Android TV devices.