Three months ago, Amazon, the world’s largest ecommerce retailer, reveals the highest profit in the 26-year history. The lockdown announced all over the USA prompted citizens to shift to online purchases through Amazon. Wall Street demanded a reply on whether Amazon can satisfy the magnified demands of customers during COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon.com Inc said that on Thursday they would announce its financial results.
During these crucial moments, Amazon has gained a lot, but it didn’t happen without any challenges. There was a time when Amazon confined its warehousing services to essential goods. Then the company decided to refurbish its operations in accordance with the COVID-19 precautions. Having over 19,000 workers caught by the virus, many wanted the site to be closed. Customers were also getting slow deliveries.
Lots of comments and reviews with negative feedbacks have started coming. Experts and analysts have also started to assume whether Amazon can retrieve their old stage or not. Colin Sebastian, an analyst of Baird Equity Research, wanted to know that if Amazon can cope with such challenges of the pandemic when demands are rising with fourth-quarter holiday shopping. Amazon has replied to the analysts’ questions after its financial report.
Sebastian asked, “Do they have the logistics and delivery capacity to handle order volumes?” Even Michael Patcher of Wedbush Securities commented about recent warehousing constraints for certain larger items. He said that “I think you’re going to have a disastrous fourth-quarter in items of demand overwhelming them once again.” But Amazon had worked hard to prevent the repetition of 2013 season when procrastination left customers without Christmas gifts.
Patcher also commented that they wanted us to start thinking ‘holiday’ before the crazy rush that would begin Black Friday. The company now maintains more deliveries in the house. This year they avail ‘Prime Day’ marketing which will allow shoppers to place orders early. The extra weeks may turn into additional sales. In spite of this pandemic, Analysts expect average revenue of $92.7 billion for the 3rd quarter, according to IBES data of Refinitiv.