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Amazon released their Q2 2008 earnings report last night (here’s the call transcript from Seeking Alpha) and, as expected, it was another smashing quarter. Continuing it’s e-Commerce market share grab (35% vs. 17% in US alone), world-wide revenue overall (excluding FX) grew by 35% to $4.06 billion with an increased full-year forecast / guidance of $19.35 - $20.1 billion.

• International revenue grew 47%, units grew 32%. Overall ASP is going up with non-media outpacing media 2:1 (52% vs. 25%) and now at 38% of all sales (up from 34%). In the US non-media is now at 42% up from 38%. Amazon highlighted here both Consumer Electronics and Toys — if you’re in those categories I’d watch my Order Defect Rate (ODR) very closely to make sure you’ll be able to reap the rewards during the all-mighty Q4.
• Active buyers increased 18% to 81M (same as sellers), that is 81M consumers world-wide have bought at least once on Amazon over the last 12 months. Amazon doesn’t break down regional user counts but I am estimating that there are about 60 million users in the US which is not all that far behind eBay’s active user count (maybe 75 million?).
• Third-Party (3P) sellers world-wide on Amazon grew 18% to approx. 1.4 million, accounting for 29% of all products sold (same as last year). While the growth accelerated (18% vs 11% a year ago), the share of third-party merchants vs. Amazon Retail (sourced and managed by Amazon) has remained essentially flat. The vast majority of seller accounts are in the media category and I am estimating there to be world-wide about 25,000 non-media sellers (anybody have any other insights?).

My favorite quote comes from CFO Thomas Szkutak who basically says “The economy sucks but we’re kicking ***”:

We’re probably not the best bell weather for the economy and certainly one indication of that is just looking at our overall growth rates that you see for Q2. We have growth rates of 35% excluding the impact of the exchange that accelerated from last year where we saw a little bit under 33% excluding exchange and also an acceleration from Q1. So I don’t think I can really help.

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2.5

Amazon today announced its holiday policy for the much-coveted Toys & Games category on Amazon.com. Not many surprises if you’ve followed this annual ritual — although the qualification criteria is spelled out clearer then I recall from past years and it’s early enough in the year to give every seller in this category a fair heads-up on what it takes to participate in this e-Commerce’s gold mine (yes, I bought toys on Amazon last year).

Here’s the announcement: Read more

Amazon officially announced yesterday (via Seller Central) that starting in August 2008 it will require UPC codes in the Home & Garden category (in the US). I believe that only leaves Jewelry as the only “no UPC required” category on Amazon. Read more

Amazon implemented restrictions on the best-selling video games and consoles to provide the best shopping experience possible for these products (high rate of fraud?). Games include the great Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Meta Gear Solid 4.

There are also hints that Amazon may soon close off again the Toys category in preparation for the holiday business. Amazon needs enough business history (few months) to determine if you are a worth seller that can provide the best customer experience possible before any foul apples create havoc during Christmas. If you’re not yet on Toys but have been planning to sell on Amazon, I would start right now.

Rate this:

3.2

Amazon announced on Monday the launch of its latest mini site, Office Supplies, at www.amazon.com/officesupplies, “a single shopping destination that offers competitive prices on hundreds of thousands of products for the classroom, home office, small office, corporate office and everything in-between.”

Read more

Amazon US announced today a new process for responding to chargebacks (the cardholder-initiated reversal of a credit-card transaction when, for example, the order was placed fraudulently or the product was not received). Read more

The Amazon UK team issued a warning yesterday that online retailers selling on its platform in the UK may receive fraudulent A-Z claim notifications.

Read more

Amazon announced yesterday that its retail diamond sales grew over 100% in the first quarter of 2008, following a so-so quarter by Blue Nile and a strong indicator that Amazon is gaining significant share in this category. Valuable to read to get an update on the top sellers: Read more

Via SeekingAlpha comes news that Amazon has launched TextBuyIt, a new SMS shopping service that enables consumers to purchase from the extensive Amazon catalog via a mobile device. Simply SMS a UPC or ISBN number to Amazon (SMS number 262966) and receive the first two items (if Amazon offers it).

I queried for a book with ISBN and received a quote within seconds along with commands to buy the item, get more details on the book and see more results. Without 1-Click you will be asked for your Amazon email address and ZIP code, and then get a call on your mobile to payment and shipping details.

The service is free and has been live in Japan for a while but of course there may be additional charges for sending an SMS from your mobile operator. Amazon has plans to put a richer user interface on this somewhat dependent on the adoption, but no timeline is known.

Rate this:

2.9

Take advantage of an opportunity to tell Amazon what you think about selling on this channel with a focus on the process and tools rather then let’s say what categories should be open, or that Amazon should launch a marketplace in Australia (which they should). The below questionnaire collects some basic profile data and you will be contacted for the meat + potatoes of the survey. Read more

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