Amazon's second Prime Day sales event won't save it from a weak holiday season

Amazon logo gray background
(Image credit: Andrew Martonik / Android Central)

What you need to know

  • Amazon announces its Q3 2022 financial earnings, with $127.1 billion in net sales.
  • Revenue increased 15% year over year, although it fell slightly below analysts' expectations.
  • Amazon's Q4 guidance is lower than analysts predicted,  especially considering the company's recent sales event in October.

Amazon released its Q3 2022 earnings on Thursday, which were up 15% year over year to $127.1 billion. However, revenue fell slightly below analysts' expectations of $127.46 billion, reports CNBC.

This is notably after the company held what it called its "biggest Prime Day event ever," boasting that Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide and saved more than $1.7 billion during the two-day shopping event.

The company also held its second major sales event in October, called its "Prime Early Access Sale," which it likely hopes will boost its Q4. However, Amazon's guidance of between $140.0 billion and $148.0 billion for the quarter still falls below expectations, which doesn't bode well for the holiday season, particularly with Black Friday sales just around the corner.

According to CNBC, analysts expected $155.15 billion for Q4 2022.

"There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we'll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets," says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a statement. "What won't change is our maniacal focus on the customer experience, and we feel confident that we're ready to deliver a great experience for customers this holiday shopping season."

The company just announced that U.S. customers can now use Venmo as a payment method, something it homes will make holiday shopping more accessible.

Amazon isn't the only Big Tech company having a challenging year. Alphabet saw its growth slow due to lower ad spend on YouTube. Meta also has a turbulent quarter due in part to increased investments in its AR/VR business and lower sales of the Quest 2.

Derrek Lee
News Editor

Derrek is a long-time Nokia and LG fanboy who loves astronomy, videography, and sci-fi movies. When he's not working, he's most likely working out or smoldering at the camera.