Amazon reports $96 bn Q3 revenues, adds India to investments cart

Ecommerce giant Amazon on Friday reported a 37% revenue growth to $96.14 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020. The net sales for cloud business AWS grew 29% year-on-year to $11.6 billion. 

Additionally, its international sales recorded a profit of $407 million for the period, compared to the loss of $386 million in the corresponding quarter last year.   

The company said that it will continue to invest in international markets, including India, that have shown profits for two consecutive quarters. 

“I would say generally we're still investing ahead of the US in a lot of dimensions internationally... things like Prime benefits, things like devices, things like international expansions,” Brian Olsavsky, CFO of Amazon, said during the earnings call. 

“But we should get about the level of investment that continued and we see that we're committed to continuing that even after the pandemic and including the international segment, of course, is India, where we've had a very strong Prime Day and Diwali is off to a good start…,” he said.

The ecommerce platform saw the number of Prime subscribers in India double during its flagship Prime Day sale on August 6 and 7. It also hired one lakh seasonal contract employees in the country ahead of the six-day Great Indian Festival sale that began on October 17. 

The company said it has expanded its delivery network in the country, with the addition of 10 new fulfilment centres, five new sortation centres and 200 delivery stations. 

The October sales by ecommerce companies drove $4.1 billion worth of order volumes in India, with the Flipkart group of companies generating close to 90% of the sales, marketing research firm RedSeer Consulting said in a recent report.  

Currently, Amazon India is locked in an arbitration battle with the Future Group. The ecommerce major claims that the proposed $3.38 billion acquisition of Future Group by Reliance Industries is a breach of contract for its indirect shareholding in Future Retail through its investment in Future Coupons in 2019.