Amazon third-quarter net sales beat estimates as more people shop online

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s third-quarter revenue beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday and the e-commerce giant forecast holiday-quarter sales above expectations, as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed more people to shop for groceries and other essential items on its online platform.

Amazon’s cloud services also saw strong demand as companies switched to virtual offices to curb the spread of the pandemic. Revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) surged 29% to $11.60 billion.

E-commerce firms and companies with strong online presence have seen business boom, as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to less shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, with more people using their mobile phones and computers to shop.

The company forecast net sales in the range of $112 billion to $121 billion for the fourth quarter. Analysts were expecting a revenue of $112.32 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net sales rose to $96.15 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $69.98 billion a year earlier, beating estimates of $92.70 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)