Amazon\u2019s revenue forecast for the third quarter fell short of expectations, with the company attributing the weaker outlook to a busy news cycle and shifting consumer attention.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, following the company\u2019s second-quarter earnings report, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky highlighted several factors contributing to the projected revenue shortfall. The Paris Olympics, which began last month, and the build-up to the U.S. presidential election were mentioned as significant distractions affecting consumer spending. Additionally, Olsavsky pointed to the recent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump as another factor diverting public focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers only have so much attention,\u201d Olsavsky said. \u201cWhen high-profile events occur, like the assassination attempt a couple of weeks ago, people shift their focus to news, leading to less shopping activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the third quarter, Amazon forecast revenue between $154 billion and $158.5 billion, with the midpoint of $156.25 billion falling below analysts\u2019 expectations of $158.24 billion. The weaker-than-expected guidance, along with a revenue miss for the second quarter, led to a more than 7% drop in Amazon\u2019s shares during extended trading.<\/p>\n
In addition to news distractions, Amazon executives noted ongoing economic challenges affecting consumer behavior. CEO Andy Jassy remarked that shoppers are increasingly opting for lower-priced items, resulting in a lower average selling price (ASP) for products sold. While sales of higher-ticket items like computers and electronics are growing, they are doing so at a slower pace compared to a more robust economy.<\/p>\n
Olsavsky also noted that consumers are focusing more on essential purchases, contributing to Amazon\u2019s revenue miss for the quarter. This cautious spending trend is echoed across the e-commerce industry, with companies like Wayfair and Etsy reporting similar slowdowns in consumer spending.<\/p>\n
In contrast, NBCUniversal has benefited from the Olympics, with the company reporting at least $1.25 billion in ad revenue from broadcasting the Paris Games. NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, noted that over 70% of advertisers for the 2024 Summer Games are new, with nearly half a billion dollars coming from first-time sponsors.<\/p>\n
Despite the short-term challenges, Olsavsky expressed confidence that consumer purchasing patterns will eventually stabilize. \u201cA lot of times, purchases will defer, and people will come back and buy what they were going to buy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Company Sees Slower Revenue Growth Amid High-Profile News Events and Economic Uncertainty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":48055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1094,3238,750],"class_list":["post-48535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-amazon","tag-olympics","tag-trump"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}