Online spending 'on the rise'

Amazon had an excellent first quarter reporting a 68 per cent increase in profits, which could suggest a recovery in consumer online spending habits.

Friday, 23 April 2010

The online shopping website revealed that its net income had grown to $299 million (£195 million) in the first three months of 2010 compared to a net income of $177 million (£115 million) in the same period last year.

There was also a 42 per cent increase in net sales, which rose to $7.13 billion (£464 billion) for the quarter, indicating that consumers are becoming more willing to spend money.

Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon said: "We remain heads-down focused on customers."

He attributed the growth in profits to the site's Kindle wireless reading device and its collection of almost 500,000 titles.

Mr Bezos added that Amazon Prime, the membership programme that provides free shipping, was now five years old and there had been acceleration in the number of people adopting the company's web services.

No hard figures were released for the number of Kindles sold but the increase in profits suggests people are more willing to depart with their cash online.

Earlier this month, Amazon released a free app for the iPhone allowing users to select and read its Kindle titles on the device, a move that could further boost sales of its ebooks.

Related stories:

• January online shoppers spend £4.3bn

• Amazon sales up 42 per cent in Q4