Though sales at Amazon rose 7% in the first quarter of 2022 over the comparable period in 2021, the rest of the company’s results brought little good news. The company posted a net loss of $3.8 billion in the quarter, compared to a profit of $8.1 billion a year ago. Sales were $116.4 billion. In the first quarter of 2021, Q1 sales jumped 44% over 2020.
Online sales in the first quarter fell 3% compared to a year ago, but at $51.1 billion was still the company’s largest business. Analysts said the decline in online sales indicates that online shopping may have peaked, at least for the short term.
In prepared remarks, CEO Andy Jassy noted that the pandemic and war in Ukraine brought both “unusual growth and challenges.” He said Amazon is at work to make its fulfillment operations more efficient, but acknowledged it may take “some time” since the conglomerate is working through “ongoing inflationary and supply chain pressures.”
Those challenges led to news that investors and analysts were not happy to hear: Amazon is expecting its bottom line in the second quarter to finish between an operating loss of $1 billion to an operating profit of $3 billion, compared to earnings of $7.7 billion in last year’s second quarter. Sales are predicted to rise between 3% to 7%.
