Sales of retail products rose 15% at Amazon in the first quarter of 2017 over the comparable period in 2016, the e-commerce giant reported. The company changed its reporting methods in 2017, eliminating the media and electronic and general merchandise segments and creating a new retail category where sales were $22.8 billion.
The new category didn’t provide too much insight on how book sales performed in the quarter. According to Amazon, the new segment includes “product sales and digital media content where we record revenue gross.” Products in the segment include “consumable and durable goods that includes electronics and general merchandise as well as media products available in both a physical and digital format, such as books, music, video, games, and software.”
Another new reporting category is retail subscription services where revenue in the quarter jumped 49%, to $1.9 billion. Included in this category are annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime membership, as well as audiobook, e-book, digital video, digital music, and other subscription services.
For the entire company, revenue in the quarter increased 23%, o $35.73 billion, and net income rose to $724 million from $513 million in the first quarter of 2016. Revenue in Amazon's cloud services business jumped 43%.
