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Amazon has reported a 34% rise in sales to $43.7bn (£33.41bn) for the three months ending September 30th, with the recent acquisition of Whole Foods Market contributing $1.3bn (£0.99bn) to that total.
The internet giant revealed it had achieved a 34% net sales increase to $43.7bn in the third quarter, compared with $32.7bn in the third quarter 2016. Meanwhile net income was $256m in the third quarter, or $0.52 a share, compared with net income of $252 million, or $0.52 per share, in third quarter 2016.
Amazon acquired US supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc for $13.7bn earlier this year. The chain contributed $1.3bn worth of net sales to Amazon's total. Excluding Whole Foods and the $124 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 29% compared with third quarter 2016, said the retailer.
Amazon does not break out results on a country-by-country basis, but it revealed North American sales saw a steeper rise than its international sales, with North America achieving an increase of 34.4% to $25.4bn (£19.42bn) in the third quarter.
International sales, which includes the UK and Europe, increased by 29.2% to $13.7bn (£10.47bn) by contrast.
Sales of subscription services at Amazon, including the Prime membership and audiobook and e-book subscriptions, totalled $2.4bn in the third quarter, up from $2.2bn in the second quarter.
Amazon founder and c.e.o. Jeff Bezos highlighted the success of the new Alexa device saying: “Customers have purchased tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices, given Echo devices over 100,000 5-star reviews, and active customers are up more than 5x since the same time last year. With thousands of developers and hardware makers building new Alexa skills and devices, the Alexa experience will continue to get even better.”
For the fourth quarter, the retailer is projecting sales to rise between 28% to 38% over last year’s fourth quarter with the company expecting operating profits of as much as $1.65bn. In last year’s fourth quarter, Amazon had operating profits of $1.3bn.