Stakeholders in most retail companies would be doing a happy dance after posting second quarter results that showed sales up 27 percent. For Amazon.com, however, the results showed a slowdown from more recent quarters as the easing of social restrictions created by the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines led many consumers to take part in more in-store shopping experiences vs. ordering online.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said that the retail and technology giant’s numbers were down from the mid-30 percent range the company experienced last year in the earlier months of the pandemic, but that it represented a gain over 2019’s results. In short, year-over-year comparisons would likely look less flattering for Amazon this year based on 2020’s pandemic-fueled results.
