AMAZON PRIME DAY CELEBRATIONS 2020.............https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i

A day after Jeff Bezos downplayed Amazon's power, it posts record profit

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, speaking via videoconference during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After Amazon , https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, warned of turbulent times ahead during the coronavirus and CEO Jeff Bezos downplayed the company's leadership position before Congress on Wednesday, Amazon went ahead and posted massive gains in the second quarter.

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The company on Thursday reported a profit of $5.2 billion, or $10.30 per share -- an all-time record -- and double last year's total. That record came even after the company poured $4 billion during the quarter into its coronavirus response to protect its workers and customers. Finance chief Brian Olsavsky said another $2 billion will be spent in the current, third quarter.

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Revenue rose 40%, the highest increase in two years. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.46 a share and revenue of $81.5 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.

Shares jumped 5% after hours.

Olsavsky said the unexpected windfall came from Amazon being able to ship much more than it expected, as well as a change in what type of goods consumers were buying. At the start of the pandemic, shoppers were focused on low-profit items like toilet paper, masks and groceries, so Amazon was expecting to break even on these sales due to its increased coronavirus costs. Instead, much more profitable stuff started selling, too, resulting in a lot more money hitting the bottom line. Amazon Web Services and the advertising business also had strong results, he said.

Olsavsky said Prime one-day and two-day, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, shipping times, which have been delayed for months during the viral outbreak, are improving, but he had no timeline on when shipping times will get back to normal.

"We've seen the one-day and two-day recover through the quarter," he said on an analyst call Thursday, "but it's still considerably behind the going-in rate, before any of this happened."

He also said Prime Day was moved to the fourth quarter of this year. The company previously confirmed only that the sales event was delayed amid the pandemic.

Amazon, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, already the king of US e-commerce, is poised to become even more dominant following the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced more people to shop online. Amazon already accounts for 38% of US online sales. Signs of e-commerce's massive growth are showing up in a big way this earnings season, with PayPal reporting a rise in digital payments on its network, e-commerce tools provider Shopify posting gains as more retailers sell online, and UPS reporting a spike in residential shipments.

Amazon's sales, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, growth was widely expected to be just as impressive, and that's shown in Amazon's surging stock price. Bezos, the world's richest person and Amazon's largest shareholder, added $65 billion just this year to his massive wealth, totaling $180 billion.

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While this rosy picture would presumably make most corporate CEOs ridiculously happy, Bezos has reason to worry. He was called before Congress just a day earlier for an antitrust hearing, with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers accusing Amazon and other Big Tech companies of monopolistic practices. Bezos defended his company by saying it accounts for less than 1% of the global retail industry, a statistic that belies its massive influence in e-commerce and includes categories it doesn't compete in. Rep. David Cicilline, the antitrust subcommittee chairman, said some of these corporations will need to be broken up and all will have to be regulated.

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Additionally, Amazon's growth during the coronavirus has been far from easy. The e-commerce giant, after training generations of customers to expect two-day shipments, faced major delays in its shipping times during the pandemic. Plus, it's had to deal with product shortages, price gouging on its marketplace and repeated protests by its warehouse workers for better protections from the virus.

Those stumbles have provided an opening for rivals like Target and Walmart, resulting in Amazon losing market share in recent months. https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i

Some of these problems appear to have been mitigated, with gear for warehouse employees broadly available, but Amazon still faces shipping delays months into the crisis. During the company's previous quarterly report, Bezos warned of huge spending to protect workers and customers from the virus, saying $600 million was spent in the first quarter and $4 billion would be spent in the second quarter.

The gains in e-commerce , https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, are also proving to be a zero-sum game. While US online sales are projected to have risen 23% in the second quarter, brick-and-mortar sales have tanked 24%, according to eMarketer. That sparked another wave of bankruptcy filings, from J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew, after plenty of traditional retailers, including RadioShack and Toys R Us, have already crumbled.

Added to that, Amazon's, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, huge earnings report comes the same day the federal government reported a massive downturn for the economy last quarter and more than 1.4 million weekly unemployment claims.

Amazon predicted sales will continue to rise strongly in the third quarter, anticipating 24% to 33% growth.

Shipping costs jumped 68% from a year ago, a huge increase from prior quarters, and the employee headcount during the quarter rose 34% from a year earlier. The company said Thursday that its combined number of regular and seasonal employees is now over 1 million.

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Greetings from Amazon.in

It's time to be prepared and make use of very high conversion rates & boost your earnings, we are approaching Prime Day 2020 which will go live on August 6 and 7 !

Let your visitors know in advance of the event and make sure you have enough content and call-outs on the days of event to guide them to the best deals. Start preparing now !

Now in its fourth year in India, Prime Day starts at midnight on Thursday, August 6 and will run for 48 hours, offering members two full days of the best in shopping, savings and blockbuster entertainment from the comfort and safety of their homes.

There are also prime member exclusive offers available for users in the lead-up period. Visit Prime Day Page and pick the content most relevant to your website and your visitors.

Also, Earn INR 100/- bounty for every eligible customer membership sign-up for Amazon Prime , where the lead-up period before Prime Day would help you maximize the number of sign ups !

What all you should know

Over 300 new product launches from top brands
Explore over 150 Prime exclusive product launches from Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs)
Thousands of blockbuster deals across TVs, Laptops, Smartphones, Appliances, Amazon Devices, Fashion, Everyday Essentials and more
Save Big with 10% instant discount with HDFC Bank Debit & Credit cards & EMI Transactions; Amazon Pay rewards on everyday payments, discounts on the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit cards and Alexa exclusive offers on bill payments

Make sure your check your inbox for latest updates as well as inputs that will help you boost your earnings during the event.

Amazon Prime Day 2020 is Coming Soon: Here’s Everything We Know So Far

We’re getting closer to Amazon Prime Day 2020. Though an exact date has yet to be announced, Amazon has been teasing an early fall date for Prime Day, it’s biggest shopping day of the year.

When is Amazon Prime Day?,,, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i

Though Prime Day has typically been held in July, Amazon, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, confirmed earlier this month that it would be postponing this year’s event, due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon has yet to release a new date, though reports suggest the annual shopping event has now been pushed to September, with sources telling Rolling Stone that it could be as early as September 9th or 10th. That would put Prime Day right in the middle of Back to School season, making it a great time to stock up on tech gear (think laptops and tablets) and on any classroom — or work from home — essentials.

Amazon officially delays Prime Day, but hasn't set a new date

An employee looks for items in one of the corridors at an Amazon warehouse.

Carlos Jasso | Reuters

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The coronavirus pandemic has pushed back Amazon's , https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, biggest shopping event of the year.

Amazon is postponing Prime Day in the U.S., the company announced Tuesday. Amazon didn't announce a date for the two-day summer sales event, which is typically held in mid-July, saying it will share "more details soon."

Earlier this month, Amazon told third-party sellers to use the week of Oct. 5 as a "placeholder date" for Prime Day promotions and coupons. The company declined to comment further regarding that date.

"Over the last five years, Prime Day, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, has become a special celebration and time for Prime members to shop incredible deals for themselves and for friends and family — and it's something we look forward to every year," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. "This year we'll be holding Prime Day later than usual, while ensuring the safety of our employees and supporting our customers and selling partners."

While Prime Day in the U.S., https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, is being put on hold, Amazon said Prime Day will take place in India next month. The event will kick off at midnight on Aug. 6 and continue until Aug. 7, the company said.

The delay was widely expected, and sellers and brands have been preparing for it for months.

Speculation began to build in April, as Amazon saw unprecedented demand from stuck-at-home shoppers during the coronavirus crisis. The flood of orders quickly caused supply-chain shortages and delivery delays. Since then, operations at Amazon's warehouses have slowly returned to normal, but the company now faces new coronavirus outbreaks across the country, which could threaten to upend its logistics operations again.

The pandemic is still likely to dampen consumer enthusiasm for Prime Day, as the virus and widespread business closures create record unemployment, said James Thomson, a former Amazon manager and now partner at brand consultancy Buy Box Experts.

However, if Amazon, https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i, can secure new Prime subscribers or push shoppers to buy its own devices, Prime Day will still be considered a success for the company because those things help draw more customers into the Amazon ecosystem where they're likely to remain and spend more money over the long-term, Thomson added.

Brands in hard-hit categories, such as apparel, remain excited about Prime Day because the event is guaranteed to drive more traffic, said Fahim Naim, a former Amazon executive and CEO of e-commerce consultancy eShopportunity.

"If there's already so much traffic on the platform, you want some kind of Prime Day deal so customers can get excited," Naim said. "No one wants to buy anything at full price on that day." https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i

https://amzn.to/39Q0z9i

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What all you should know

Over 300 new product launches from top brands
Explore over 150 Prime exclusive product launches from Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs)
Thousands of blockbuster deals across TVs, Laptops, Smartphones, Appliances, Amazon Devices, Fashion, Everyday Essentials and more
Save Big with 10% instant discount with HDFC Bank Debit & Credit cards & EMI Transactions; Amazon Pay rewards on everyday payments, discounts on the Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit cards and Alexa exclusive offers on bill payments

Make sure your check your inbox for latest updates as well as inputs that will help you boost your earnings during the event.

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