Amazon prepares for slower sales growth over the holiday season

According to Reuters, Amazon.com Inc. is forecasting slower sales growth over the holiday season, falling short of Wall Street's expectations and a warning that consumers and businesses worried about rising inflation are spending less money.

Net sales in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, were $127.1 billion, still down slightly from analysts' expectations of $127.5 billion.

However, the macroeconomic outlook remained unchanged. Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, said in a meeting with reporters that the corporation was preparing for a slowdown in economic growth.

In particular, he stressed that the company is seeing signs that people are having to tighten their budgets, that inflation is still high, and that energy costs are another source of expense due to other issues. Like most companies, Amazon is preparing for the possibility that the rate of growth may slow.

Amazon will continue to fund businesses that are in the early stages of their development — such as its profitable cloud computing and advertising divisions — but will control costs in other areas and be careful about hiring, Olsavsky said.