Amazon forecasts stronger Q3 revenue, helped by Prime Day

Amazon.com forecast third-quarter revenue above Wall Street expectations on 3 August, boosted by its biggest Prime Day sale event in July that drew price-conscious consumers to its e-commerce platform.

Shares of the e-commerce and cloud giant rose 6% in after-hours trading.

Discounts on goods and deal codes for the first time on services like hotel bookings drove U.S. online sales up 6.1% to a record $12.7 billion during Amazon’s shopping event as inflation-hit Americans rushed to seize more bargains.

Amazon’s nearly 200 million Prime members saved over $2.5 billion on about 375 million items sold during the two-day event.

Analysts expect that to boost advertising and merchant services revenue too as more third-party merchants sign-up.

The company forecast current-quarter net sales in the range of $138 billion and $143 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting revenue of $138.25 billion.

Revenue in the second quarter rose 11% to $134.4 billion, compared to estimates of $131.50 billion.