£480m pouring into Amazon EVERY day
AMAZON raked in a staggering £480million per day over the summer as shoppers continued to flock online.
The US technology giant last night revealed global sales of £44.2billion in just three months – up by nearly 30 per cent from last year. It also reported profits of £2.3billion between July and September – almost four times what Marks & Spencer makes in an entire year.
In a further sign of the might of America’s tech titans, Google owner Alphabet reported revenues of £26.3billion and profits of £7.2billion for the third quarter of the year. The astonishing figures were in stark contrast to Britain’s struggling high street and came just hours after Debenhams sank to the biggest loss in its history.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is under pressure to act in the Budget on Monday to level the playing field between traditional retailers and their online rivals.
Last night Justin Urquhart Stewart, of Seven Investment Management, said Amazon’s huge takings proved ‘clicks are beating bricks’.
He added: ‘These figures are only going to bring questions about how online companies are taxed even further to the fore.
‘You only need to look at Debenhams today to see that perfectly viable retail businesses are having their legs chopped off by American technology giants.’
Amazon started as an online bookseller 24 years ago but has since expanded into a global empire spanning everything from toys to office equipment and storage in the online ‘cloud’. The company’s extraordinary rise has changed the way people shop and made its founder, Jeff Bezos, into the richest man in modern history with a fortune of £114billion.
However, that rise has also led to criticism of its devastating impact on high street shops, the amount of tax it pays and the working conditions of staff in its vast warehouses.
More than 50,000 retail jobs have already been lost this year as consumers shun traditional shops to buy products online.
Critics argue bricks and mortar shops face crippling business rates for their high street properties, while online giants such as Amazon pay far less for out- of-town warehouses. The internet company has also been accused of using complicated company structures to shift profits abroad, artificially reducing its tax bills.
A Daily Mail investigation last month found it reported sales in the UK of about £3billion and a tax bill of just £21million. MPs from all political parties branded the figures outrageous, piling pressure on the Chancellor to take action.
Despite the its enormous earnings, last night Amazon’s shares plummeted in the US – because traders were disappointed that it didn’t make even more.