Amazon revenue beats on stable online demand, cloud strength

Amazon.com Inc reported first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, helped by resilient demand for online shopping and cloud services businesses, sending its shares up about 11% in extended trading.

E-commerce companies are set to make more gains over traditional brick-and-mortar retailers by diving deep into categories such as groceries and appliances among others, according to analysts.

Amazon’s dominance of the online retail sector has helped it avert a hit from weak consumer sentiment due to high inflation.

The world’s biggest online retailer reported net sales of $127.4 billion in the first three months of the year, compared with expectations of $124.55 billion, according to Refinitiv.

It forecast net sales of between $127 billion and $133 billion for the second quarter, compared with expectations of $129.83 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Net profit stood at $3.17 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $3.84 billion, a year earlier.