5 Things We Learned About Amazon in the Age of Coronavirus From Its Q1 Earnings Call

Its own marketing spend is down and sellers are shipping their own stuff, for starters.

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In its Q1 2019 earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky casually mentioned the company was pivoting to one-day shipping, effectively throwing another gauntlet at the ecommerce industry.

Fast forward 12 months and that one-day shipping program is more or less on hold. Product shortages remain and workers are striking, so—no surprises here—Amazon’s Q1 2020 call was all about its response to coronavirus.

Here are five insights which emerged from the call into the notoriously tightlipped company during the global pandemic:

It’s anybody’s guess when one-day shipping will be back

After absorbing unexpected changes in demand and stabilizing operations by focusing on essential items and extending shipping times from one to four days, Olsavsky said “things are still so up in the air,” so he can’t predict whether Amazon will return to one-day shipping “in Q2 or Q3 or beyond.”

Its

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