On April 27, Amazon reported that 2023 first-quarter net sales were $127.4 billion, a 9% increase over the $116.4 billion reported in the first quarter of 2022. Excluding $2.4 billion in unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout 1Q 2023, net sales increased 11% compared with 1Q 2022, Amazon said.

Amazon doesn’t report specific earnings for its Amazon Business segment, which is ranked No. 2 on MDM’s 2022 Top Industrial Distributors list.

For 1Q 2023, Amazon said North America segment sales increased 11% year-over-year to $76.9 billion. AWS segment sales increased 16% year-over-year to $21.4 billion, the company said in its earnings announcement.

Operating income in 1Q 2023 increased to $4.8 billion, compared with $3.7 billion in 1Q 2022. First-quarter 2023 operating income included approximately $500 million of charges related to estimated severance costs, the company said. North America segment operating income was $0.9 billion, compared with operating loss of $1.6 billion in 1Q 2022. AWS segment operating income was $5.1 billion, compared with operating income of $6.5 billion in 1Q 2022, Amazon said.

Net income in 1Q 2023 was $3.2 billion, or $0.31 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $3.8 billion, or $0.38 per diluted share, in 1Q 2022.

“There’s a lot to like about how our teams are delivering for customers, particularly amidst an uncertain economy,” said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO. “Our Stores business is continuing to improve the cost to serve in our fulfillment network while increasing the speed with which we get products into the hands of customers (we expect to have our fastest Prime delivery speeds ever in 2023). Our Advertising business continues to deliver robust growth, largely due to our ongoing machine learning investments that help customers see relevant information when they engage with us, which in turn delivers unusually strong results for brands. And, while our AWS business navigates companies spending more cautiously in this macro environment, we continue to prioritize building long-term customer relationships both by helping customers save money and enabling them to more easily leverage technologies like Large Language Models and Generative AI with our uniquely cost-effective machine learning chips (“Trainium” and “Inferentia”), managed Large Language Models (“Bedrock”), and AI code companion CodeWhisperer. We like the fundamentals we’re seeing in AWS, and believe there’s much growth ahead.”

Earlier this month, Amazon announced it was launching an counterfeiting exchange program and would be expanding its business efforts for selling office supplies internationally.