Global e-commerce behemoth Amazon experienced an unexpected shift in the last quarter of 2022, with their own online revenue streams seeing a drop-off of $1.5 billion. In addition, their total net loss at the end of the year stood at $2.7 billion, its first since 2014.
However, retail capabilities for third party sellers represented a rapidly growing branch of the business, with a 20% increase in revenue during Q4 of last year.
The global shipping company has stretched out its resources to encompass everything from music and streaming to artificial intelligence and cloud computing, but even over the recent busy holiday period at the tail end of 2022, they registered the least profitable Q4 in their history – $0.3 billion compared to $14.3 billion the year prior.
Despite this, Amazon experienced a year on year growth of 20% relating to products from third-party seller services and Amazon Web Services for business, while their ventures in subscription-based services such as Amazon Prime and Audible garnered a 13% increase.
Though not as far reaching as their comprehensive online experience, Amazon’s decision to open physical stores in recent years also appears to be a positive one, with a 6% increase year on year courtesy of Amazon Supermarkets and Whole Foods.
As mentioned, the only sector to experience a drop in revenue was its very own online shopping service, with a slight 2% lull at the end of 2022. This is the only sign of a reversing in their recent trend of consistent annual profits, and perhaps an indication that the e-commerce boom during the global coronavirus pandemic is returning to pre-2020 levels.
