Amazon.com: Q4 Sales up 21% to $87.4 Billion

Amazon.com announced its financial results for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019. Net sales increased with 21%, to $87.4 billion in the fourth quarter compared to $72.4 billion in Q4-2018. Excluding the $120 million unfavourable impacts from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 21% compared with fourth-quarter 2018.

The operating income of the American marketplace giant increased to $3.9 billion in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2018, this was $3.8 billion. The net income increased to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with a net income of $3.0 billion in Q4-2018.

The full-year 2019 saw a net sales increase of 20%. Net sales grossed $280.5 in 2019, compared to $232.9 a year prior. Excluding the $2.6 billion unfavourable impacts from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates in 2019, net sales increased 22% compared to a year before.

Growth of Amazon Prime

According to Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, "Prime membership continues to get better for customers year after year. And customers are responding - more people joined Prime this quarter [Q4-2019] than ever before, and we have over 150 million paid Prime members around the world. We've made Prime delivery faster - the number of items delivered to US customers with Prime's free one-day and same-day delivery more than quadrupled compared to the same quarter last year. Members now have a free two-hour grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market in more than 2000 US cities and towns."

In 2019, highlights for Amazon.com include:

• Amazon.com announced that free returns can now be made at more than 18,000 drop-off locations in the U.S., including Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores, Amazon Hub locations, Kohl’s, select Whole Foods Market stores, UPS, and more. In support of Amazon’s commitment to sustainability, more than 5,800 locations now offer label-free and box-free returns, limiting the amount of packaging used.
• Since launching Prime in September, Brazil has seen the fastest growth in paid Prime members in Amazon’s history. Selection on amazon.com.br continues to expand and now includes millions of items, and in December the country opened its fourth fulfilment centre to support growth. Additionally, Prime Video announced four new original productions for 2020 and will debut All or Nothing: Brazil National Football Team on January 31^st.
• Amazon.com pledged to invest $1 billion to help digitize traders and micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMBs) across India, with the goal of bringing more than 10 million MSMBs online by 2025. Today, there are more than 550,000 sellers on the Amazon India marketplace, more than 60,000 Indian manufacturers and brands are exporting their “Make in India” products to customers worldwide on Amazon, and we expect our new $1 billion investment to enable $10 billion in cumulative Indian exports by 2025.
• Amazon India announced it will have 10,000 electric vehicles in its delivery fleet by 2025. This investment is part of Amazon’s recent co-founding of The Climate Pledge, a commitment to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early by achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
• Independent third-party sellers — mostly small and medium-sized businesses — sold more than a billion items during the holiday season, including more than 100 million items shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery. Amazon also announced nine winners of the Small Business Spotlight Awards in the U.K., Germany, and the U.S., including Small Business of the Year winners Gamely Games in the U.K., Snocks in Germany, and nutpods in the U.S.