Amazon in the red

By Alun Williams

Posted on 24 Jul 2002 at 15:26

The losses return. The online retailer Amazon has moved back into the red for its latest quarterly results.

Probably the most famous dot-com in the world, Amazon achieved (very) long awaited profitability at the end of last year. But the old order has re-established itself according to financial figures issued yesterday. The company has now slipped out of the black and back into the red, to the tune of $94m.

Despite recording the net loss, Amazon did achieve an increase of sales by 21 per cent (to $806m) during the three-month period (April to June 2002). International sales - which include revenue from the UK - rose by an impressive 70 per cent.

Also successfully driving revenue were sales in the electronics, tools and kitchen sectors. This vindicates, somewhat, the drive by Amazon's CEO and founder Jeff Bezos to diversify away from the company's traditional territory of books and CDs.

The company also highlighted Amazon traffic for 'third-party transactions', where individuals sell used or refurbished items online. These now account for 35 per cent of the value of orders placed in the US.

You can read the full figures on the Amazon Web site.