Amazon.com, the Seattle-based online retailer, saw its second quarter net loss more than double, from $138 million in 1999 to $317 million in 2000. The loss came despite sales for the quarter of $578 million, an 84% increase over second quarter 1999’s $314 million. The quarter ended June 30.
Fulfillment costs for the quarter were $88 million, or 15% of second-quarter sales. Fulfillment costs for the second quarter of 1999 were not broken out in the company’s financial statement.
The results, which were released just after the stock market closed, came on a day when the company’s stock traded down nearly 10% from its morning opening price during trading hours, before rebounding to a loss of 1 9/16, closing at 36 1/16.
The company’s stock wasn’t the only element going through turmoil yesterday. In the middle of the day Amazon’s site went down for approximately half an hour. Visitors trying to log onto it were presented with a message saying that the store was closed, but that it was expected to be back up soon. The site resumed operations at approximately 1:30 eastern time.
All this came the day after Amazon announced that its president and COO Joe Galli had resigned to pursue other interests. These interests apparently include business-to-business Web commerce: Galli joined online marketer VerticalNet as president and CEO. The Horsham, PA B-to-B firm operates 57 industry specific Web sites that provide information and e-commerce capabilities.
Galli replaced Mark Walsh, who was named the firm’s chairman.
Amazon’s financial statement did contain some good news for the company: Repeat customers made up 78% of the company’s orders in the second quarter, compared with 70% in second quarter 1999. Overall, the company had 22.5 million customer accounts at the end of the quarter, including 2.5 million new ones added during the quarter.
