YCD learned that on November 30, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy spoke at the New York Times DealBook conference. When talking about Thanksgiving consumption in the United States this year, he said that consumption remains sluggish and consumers are focused on finding specials.
According to Jassy, Amazon is forecasting a likely slowdown in holiday season sales as inflation and rising interest rates hurt consumer confidence. But retailers have performed better than expected over the Thanksgiving holiday in recent weeks as inflation concerns have eased.
U.S. consumers ended up spending $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Inc., a 5.8% increase over 2021, when supply chain disruptions prompted people to shop early and retailers lowered their discounts.
Amazon said this year’s Thanksgiving shopping weekend was its largest ever, with customers buying “hundreds of millions of products,” but did not provide any further details. Jassy stressed that U.S. shoppers are now very concerned about discounts on items, and are more interested in big-ticket items. Discounts such as TVs and computers are given more weight.
However, Jassy noted that Amazon is currently evaluating how buyers are responding to the current environment as the economy remains fraught with uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the PYMNTS study found that the 15 million Americans who bought gifts during the holiday shopping season in 2021 did not do so this year because inflation is eating into their personal purchasing power. Additionally, U.S. credit card debt is at an all-time high, and credit card interest rates are hitting record highs.
Like other tech companies, Amazon has been cutting expenses.
Andy Jassy said on Wednesday that the world’s second-largest company by revenue has been trying to “streamline” costs as it navigates an uncertain economic environment, cutting investments outside its core revenue-generating business while investing in businesses it believes will have long-term benefits for the company .