Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has posted quarterly sales of almost $100bn (£77.4bn).
In the three months to the end of September, net sales increased by 37% whilst net profit grew from $2.1bn to $6.3bn.
Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, said in a statement: “Two years ago, we increased Amazon’s minimum wage to $15 for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees across the US and challenged other large employers to do the same. Best Buy and Target have stepped up, and we hope other large employers will also make the jump to $15. Now would be a great time.”
The company is “offering jobs with industry-leading pay and great healthcare, including to entry-level and frontline employees, is even more meaningful in a time like this, and we’re proud to have created over 400,000 jobs this year alone”.
Amazon is seeing “more customers than ever shopping early for their holiday gifts, which is just one of the signs that this is going to be an unprecedented holiday season. Big thank you to our employees.”
Since the start of the year, the group has created 400,000 jobs. Earlier this week, the online retailer said it would create 100,000 seasonal jobs to the current workforce.
Amazon has forecast revenue for Q4 to be between $112bn and $121bn, however, it warned that Covid-related costs could hit profits.
“In total, we have incurred more than $7.5bn in incremental COVID-related costs in the first three quarters of 2020, and we expect to incur approximately $4bn in Q4,” said CFO Brian Olsavsky.