In the latest signal that the ecommerce sector is bouncing back from the recession, online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said that its first-quarter profit rose 68 percent, posting earnings and revenue figures that easily topped analysts' expectations.
Amazon reported net income for the quarter of $299 million, up from $177 million in the same period last year. That translated to earnings of $0.66 per share, five cents higher than analysts' consensus projection, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.
Overall sales spiked to $7.13 billion, 46 percent ahead of last year's mark of $4.89 billion, and well above the $6.87 billion analysts were forecasting.
Today's results follow healthy first-quarter financials turned in by other online retailer and advertising bellwethers in the past week, including eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).
Collectively, the improved performances indicate that consumer confidence is beginning to bounce back and that advertisers are again starting to spend more freely.
Unlike many of Amazon's smaller ecommerce rivals, including eBay, the recession has treated the company fairly well. Amazon has enjoyed brisk revenue gains even through the lean quarters of 2008 and 2009 as consumers took to the Web in search of bargains. Amazon, by virtue of its volume, has been able to undercut competitors' prices, analysts have noted.
Last year, during what now appears to have been the nadir of the recession, Amazon saw its net sales soar 28 percent over 2008.
While Amazon continues to expand the merchandise available through its ecommerce hub, either from Amazon directly or through its third-party merchants, the Kindle e-reader remains the company's principal interest. Throughout the holiday season, Amazon loudly trumpeted that the Kindle was its best-selling product, and that it was selling more electronic books than paper versions. Then on Wednesday of this week, Target announced a deal to sell the device in its retail stores, the first time the Kindle will be available outside of Amazon.com.
Of course, the Kindle, widely credited with jumpstarting the long-stagnant e-book market, is now facing a substantial competitive threat with the introduction of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad tablet, a device that offers Web browsing, a full-color screen and an enormous repository of third-party apps in addition to its e-reading capability.
Additionally, Amazon has been locked in heated disputes with publishers over the licensing and revenue-sharing terms of the titles available in digital format through the Kindle store.
Amazon does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle.
Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
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