Amazon Reaches $143B in Revenue During Q1
Amazon has started its fiscal 2024 year off on a good foot with the release of its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31.
The retailer reported that net sales increased 13% to $143.3 billion, compared with $127.4 billion in Q1 2023 – excluding the $0.2 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter. North America segment sales jumped 12% year-over-year to $86.3 billion.
Operating income soared to $15.3 billion in Q1, compared with $4.8 billion in Q1 2023. North America segment operating income was an impressive $5.0 billion, compared with last year’s $0.9 billion.
Net income rose to $10.4 billion, or 98 cents per diluted share, compared with $3.2 billion, or 31 cents per diluted share, last year.
During the quarter, Amazon continued to flex its e-commerce muscles. With more than 2 billion global units arriving the same or next day in Q1, Amazon delivered to Prime members at its fastest speeds ever. In March, across the top 60 largest U.S. metro areas, nearly 60% of Prime member orders arrived the same or next day.
The retailer also launched a grocery subscription for unlimited delivery on orders over $35 from Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, as well as local grocery and specialty retailers. The subscription benefit is available to Prime members in more than 3,500 towns and cities in the United States, as well as to customers using a registered EBT card.
Additionally, the company introduced same-day delivery of prescription medications to Amazon Pharmacy customers in two new locations — greater Los Angeles and New York City — with plans to expand to more than a dozen cities by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Amazon's operating cash flow soared 82% to $99.1 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with $54.3 billion for the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2023.
Free cash flow improved to an inflow of $50.1 billion for the trailing 12 months, compared with an outflow of $3.3 billion last year.
“It was a good start to the year across the business, and you can see that in both our customer experience improvements and financial results,” said Andy Jassy, Amazon president and CEO. “The combination of companies renewing their infrastructure modernization efforts and the appeal of AWS’ AI capabilities is reaccelerating AWS’ growth rate (now at a $100 billion annual revenue run rate); our Stores business continues to expand selection, provide everyday low prices, and accelerate delivery speed (setting another record on speed for Prime customers in Q1) while lowering our cost to serve; and, our Advertising efforts continue to benefit from the growth of our Stores and Prime Video businesses. It’s very early days in all of our businesses, and we remain excited by how much more we can make customers’ lives better and easier moving forward.”
Amazon’s guidance going forward for Q2 includes net sales of between $144.0 billion and $149.0 billion. Operating income is expected to be between $10.0 billion and $14.0 billion, compared with $7.7 billion in the second quarter of 2023.
The retailer also said it will hold its 10th Prime Day event in July.
Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century.
