Amazon Set to Batter Competition Ahead of Holidays

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Nov 4, 7:57AM EST · Published Nov 3, 8:41AM EST

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Amazon Set to Batter Competition Ahead of Holidays — © jetcityimage / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

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There is not a single sign that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) will fail to continue to own e-commerce this holiday season.
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Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock is up 30% this year, while the S&P 500 is 23% higher. Most of the attention to the company’s recent earnings was focused on its success in the AI cloud sector. However, its North American retailer posted amazing numbers. Revenue was up 8% to $95.5 billion. Operating income for the same segment rose 32% to $5.7 billion. Amazon’s guidance includes the whole company. It was for an increase of 7% to 11%.

The holiday season starts on October 30, November 1, or Thanksgiving, depending on who one asks. When the U.S. Department of Commerce posted the third quarter’s numbers, it showed that consumer spending rose the most in a year and a half. Inflation also slowed, which should increase discretionary spending.

Amazon still completely dominates the U.S. e-commerce business. As of 2023, it holds a 38% share. Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was well behind, at just below 7%.

Amazon’s advertising revenue has become a large part of its revenue mix. It rose 19% in the most recent quarter to $14.3 billion. Amazon’s US online ad market share has grown to 14%, closing in on Meta’s 24%.

There is not a single sign that Amazon will fail to continue to own e-commerce this holiday season.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.