Amazon‘s sales surged by 34 percent in Q3 2017 and amounted to $43.7 billion, the company revealed earlier this week as part of its consolidated financial report for the three-month period ending September 30th. The Seattle, Washington-based tech giant recorded a tenth consecutive quarter of profit, though its bottom line is still relatively small given its massive scale, having reached $256 million on an operating income of $347 million, with the latter being 40 percentage points down compared to the same period last year. The high-profile Whole Foods acquisition made its way to Amazon’s report and contributed $21 million to its operating income and $1.3 billion to revenue. By far the largest purchase in the company’s history is still being integrated into its operations and is expected to feature more prominently in its performance reports going forward, as suggested by the firm.
Amazon continues with its strategy of aggressive expansion and advertises it as one of the key metrics illustrating the long-term sustainability of its operations which still aren’t yielding significant profits for their size solely due to the fact that the vast majority of net earnings are reinvested into other ventures shortly after they’re generated, which is a business approach that Amazon has been pursuing for well over two decades now. The company’s latest financials also highlight its ongoing expansion efforts, specifically boasting about its new additions to the Alexa ecosystem which also just recently expanded to BMW’s 2018 models and launched in India. The growing artificial intelligence platform hit the 25,000-skills milestone during the past quarter and is continuously having its capabilities improved and expanded on all platforms, Amazon said, adding how its commitment to Alexa and the emerging segment of consumer-oriented AI solutions will continue going forward.
The report didn’t provide an update on the company’s search for second North America headquarters whose tender period ended last Thursday, save for revealing that 238 bids from cities across the United States and Canada have been received in total. Amazon’s Q4 2017 predictions include between $300 million and $1.65 billion of operating income and net sales in the range of $56 billion and $60.5 billion, with the latter metric hence being projected to grow by up to 38 percent on an annual basis.