Amazon North American Sales Up 9 Percent in 2nd Quarter of 2024

Amazon grew North American sales 9% in the second quarter of 2024, year-over-year, and grew International sales 7% in Q2 (or 10% excluding changes in foreign exchange rates). Worldwide paid units grew 11% in the quarter, and third-party sellers accounted for 61% of worldwide paid units in the quarter, excluding the impact of Whole Foods Market.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in the company’s press release on Thursday:

“We’re continuing to make progress on a number of dimensions, but perhaps none more so than the continued reacceleration in AWS growth. As companies continue to modernize their infrastructure and move to the cloud, while also leveraging new Generative AI opportunities, AWS continues to be customers’ top choice as we have much broader functionality, superior security and operational performance, a larger partner ecosystem, and AI capabilities like SageMaker for model builders, Bedrock for those leveraging frontier models, Trainium for those where the cost of compute for training and inference matters, and Q for those wanting the most capable GenAI assistant for not just coding, but also software development and business integration.”

The following is an excerpt from Amazon’s press release which can be found on the Amazon website:

• Net sales increased 10% to $148.0 billion in the second quarter, compared with $134.4 billion in second quarter 2023. Excluding the $1.0 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 11% compared with second quarter 2023.
• North America segment sales increased 9% year-over-year to $90.0 billion.
• International segment sales increased 7% year-over-year to $31.7 billion, or increased 10% excluding changes in foreign exchange rates.
• AWS segment sales increased 19% year-over-year to $26.3 billion.
• Operating income increased to $14.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with $7.7 billion in second quarter 2023.
• North America segment operating income was $5.1 billion, compared with operating income of $3.2 billion in second quarter 2023.
• International segment operating income was $0.3 billion, compared with an operating loss of $0.9 billion in second quarter 2023.
• AWS segment operating income was $9.3 billion, compared with operating income of $5.4 billion in second quarter 2023.
• Net income increased to $13.5 billion in the second quarter, or $1.26 per diluted share, compared with $6.7 billion, or $0.65 per diluted share, in second quarter 2023.
• Second quarter 2024 net income includes a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.4 billion included in non-operating income (expense) from the common stock investment in Rivian Automotive, Inc., compared to a pre-tax valuation gain of $0.2 billion from the investment in second quarter 2023.
• Operating cash flow increased 75% to $108.0 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $61.8 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2023.
• Free cash flow increased to $53.0 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $7.9 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2023.
• Free cash flow less principal repayments of finance leases and financing obligations increased to $49.6 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.9 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2023.
• Free cash flow less equipment finance leases and principal repayments of all other finance leases and financing obligations increased to $51.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $6.7 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2023.

The company also published notable developments including that it had held its 10th Prime Day; delivered to Prime members at its fastest speeds ever in the first half of the year; and launched Amazon’s Stores business in South Africa with same and next-day delivery.