Amazon has recorded a profit of $345 million in its international business, helped by an increase in sales amid the coronavirus crisis. This is the first such quarterly profit globally in the last several years.
Amazon's international business is led by Europe, India, and Japan, and the company has seen losses from its international business often climb to as high as $900 million in some quarters.
Over the recent quarters as well, the company has seen high international losses -- a loss of nearly $400 million in the March quarter and $617 million in the December quarter. In the second quarter of the last financial year, Amazon saw losses of $600 million in its international business.
"The surge in demand internationally helped drive the profitability," said Brian Olsavsky, the chief financial officer of the company.
"We are seeing in established countries an acceleration in adoption of Prime benefits, and we pushed videos, devices and music," he added.
Amazon's overall net sales increased 40 percent to $88.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with $63.4 billion in the second quarter of 2019.
Operating income increased to $5.8 billion in the second quarter, compared with an operating income of $3.1 billion in the second quarter of 2019.
On the India front, Amazon management said the country is seeing the biggest investments among the new markets the company is looking at.
"In India, we are focused on digitising Indian sellers and small businesses and we have launched features for digitisation. There is great work being done by the team. They have goals there of getting more sellers and hiring more people," the CFO said.
India is also the first country that will kick off the company's Prime Day event globally on August 6 and 7. The company has decided to push its plan to host Prime Day in Q4 in other markers rather than Q3 as it has been in prior years.
This year, Amazon made an investment pledge of $1 billion in India with the aim to help digitally enable MSMEs.
Amazon also launched Local Shops on Amazon.in to let shopkeepers and retailers with physical stores serve more customers from their local areas.
Since its launch, the company said more than 11,000 sellers have enrolled in the program.
Amazon also introduced seller registration and account management in Hindi this year, and says more than 10,000 sellers have used Hindi to register on Amazon.in.
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