Shipping costs surge? It's business as usual at Amazon...

© Ken Wolter

In a post headed “Amazon shipping costs outpace sales growth as pandemic operating expenses soar“, SUPPLY CHAIN DIVE reports:

– Amazon’s shipping costs increased 57% YoY in Q3 to reach $15 billion, the company reported Thursday. Shipping costs grew faster than online sales (up 38% YoY) in the same period, which contained an unusually late Prime Day.

– Operational costs related to COVID-19 have added up to $7.5 billion for the year so far, according to comments by Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavksy on the Thursday earnings call. The expenses include new procedures to facilitate social distancing in fulfillment centers, ramp-up costs for new facilities, an influx of roughly 250,000 new employees‘ training and onboarding costs, enhanced cleaning, and personal protective equipment. The company expects to spend $4.5 billion on incremental COVID-19-related operational costs in Q4, Olsavsky said.

– The company pulled forward some spending on logistics capacity building planned for next year to Q4 to meet the seemingly endless demand.

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