Pandemic Drives Amazon Sales As Consumers Shop Online To Beat Boredom, Stress

People seemed to be hooked to online shopping and sales on e-commerce sites have seen an increase because of virtual shopping. e-shopping platform Amazon posted another record quarter with revenues up 44 percent YoY to $108.5 billion.

In the March quarter, net income rose to $8.1 billion, compared with net income of $2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020. It shows how millions of consumers are now shopping on the site as the pandemic continues to destroy the retail market. 

On Thursday, Amazon's stock rose more than 3% in extended trading. Amazon said their sales will increase to a range between $110 billion and $116 billion in the second quarter (April-June).

Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said, "As Prime Video turns 10, over 175 million Prime members have streamed shows and movies in the past year, and streaming hours are up more than 70% year over year."

"In just 15 years, AWS has become a $54 billion annual sales run rate business competing against the world’s largest technology companies, and its growth is accelerating — up 32 percent year over year," said Amazon CEO.

Amazon said that it has added nearly 300,000 new direct and indirect jobs in India in January 2020, placing the company on track to reach its goal of one million new jobs by 2025.