Amazon posts fifty-one per cent sales boost

Thursday, July 28, 2011 - 13:24 by Graham Miller

Online retailer Amazon has seen its sales jump by 51 per cent over the last three months, the biggest increase measured at the company in ten years.

This should be further evidence that safe shopping online is still an area of significant growth, irrespective of the economic woe which is hitting other sectors and the high street.

Between April and June inclusive, Amazon sold around £6 billion worth of products around the world, but, significantly, its actual income dropped by eight per cent in the same period.

The reason for this is that Amazon is choosing to pump its profits back into making its prices cheaper so that consumers are more likely to choose it over rivals, thus making more sense in the long term.

Even optimistic analysts did not come close to predicting Amazon's meteoric rise in sales this past quarter, with many now convinced that low prices and ease of use are the driving factors behind the global increase in safe shopping online.

Some are likening Amazon's impressive performance to the internet bubble which expanded to breaking point at the end of the last century. 

In the US there are rivals to Amazon who are criticising the site for the perceived unfair advantage of allowing consumers to avoid paying sales tax, thanks to a glitch in the law.

However, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, said that it is the retailer's wide selection of products, speedy delivery times and bargain basement prices which are allowing it to retain existing customers and win over newcomers.

Amazon has been consistent in growing faster than rivals and bucking economic trends to pick up a greater proportion of sales. Whether it is companies like Amazon that are siphoning off cash from the high street and putting big chains against the ropes, is a point for debate.