Dive Brief:
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Amazon.com posted a 20.4% Q3 revenue gain, the company said Thursday. Its net loss widened, however, due to investments in marketing, its new delivery policies, and other categories. The loss was bigger than expected.
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That marked the seventh time in nine quarters that the e-retail giant missed expectations, and its stock price fell 10% by Friday morning to lower than it’s been in over a year.
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Amazon also said it expected Q4 sales to hit between $27.3 billion and $30.3 billion, still not up to analysts’ expectations of closer to $30.39 billion.
Dive Insight:
For a long time, Amazon has ridden a wave of confidence that its many investments and hardscrabble price competition would win the day. But it seems investors, at least some of them, are growing weary of waiting for a payoff.
Many retailers, which at first didn’t seem to know what to do about Amazon’s willingness to offer shipping perks and low prices without regard to profit, have begun to respond to the competition. This holiday season, in fact, finds many retailers much more nimble with websites, apps, and fulfillment options that compete quite well. That puts more pressure on Amazon as well.