I’m sure that just about everyone is done with being quarantined. It’s beginning to take its toll on people’s mental health. Everyone has started complaining about some aspect of being at home.
Everyone except Amazon that is.
Amazon has somehow managed to not be hurt by the virus but has actually been thriving during this global pandemic. Their stocks have gone from $1898.01 on January 2nd to $2355.07 as of 3 pm EST April 21.
I know you’re probably reading that and thinking, “Well, obviously. We don’t have anything to do but order off Amazon right now.”
Actually, there is a lot more that goes into it.
The company was setting itself up for almost any catastrophe before the outbreak of the virus. They’ve been diversifying and excelling. All thanks to their fearless leader Jeff Bezos.
A man so fearless, he called a reporter out on them trying to blackmail him. Sure, he did a bad thing and didn’t want to have marriage trouble as the media outed him for infidelity, but infidelity isn’t illegal. Blackmail is. So, he took up arms, outed his relationship issues, and continued leading his company to earn millions more.
I’m not an investment advisor, but I would say it’s smart to invest in Amazon until Bezos dies or sells the company. As long as he is the head, there is a good chance the company will continue thriving.
What I’m mainly going to investigate here is HOW Amazon is doing so well while the rest of the stock market is dropping severely.
Help from the Pandemic
Through no fault of Amazon, they have done just that though.
Bezos set up the company well by capitalizing on the creation of an eCommerce-based company. Not only that, but he also made Amazon have its own products as well as being a selling platform for small businesses and individuals.
Amazon took the idea of being able to sell things like eBay and added their own products, usually at a discount than what the competition is selling them.
Since the coronavirus pandemic occurred, people have been ordered by state and local governments to stay home more and avoid going outside. Companies began requiring employees to start working from home if possible, to limit face to face contact.
These orders have made people more likely to hop online and shop.
Coupling that idea with many nonessential stores closing their storefront doors and moving to eCommerce, a field where they were not well suited to go, people have been shopping more on Amazon’s website.
Because COVID-19 is so contagious, people have even been trying to avoid grocery stores whenever possible. This has led to the key investment Amazon made in Whole Foods even smarter. You can shop for groceries from the comfort of your own home.
It’s a very terrible event that has helped Amazon’s stock to rise so dramatically over the course of the past four months, but it has.
Entertainment
To build on the stay at home orders, the entertainment industry is totally different now.
Amazon already was one of the first companies with a streaming service to be taken seriously for the Academy Awards with their studio A24 producing numerous incredible films, but people are now stuck at home and are binging movies and TV shows more than ever before.
Amazon Prime is one of the top companies when it comes to multimedia streaming. They offer many different ways to consume.
Prime has movies and TV series. They have the likes of Eighth Grade, Manchester by the Sea, Room, Midsommar, Lady Bird, The Witch, Green Room, Ex Machina, Hereditary, Moonlight, and many more.
They also have music. Prime music hosts many artists and allegedly pays better than Spotify.
Not only does Amazon have their streaming service, but they own Twitch.tv Twitch is like YouTube, except that it is primarily for live streaming yourself while playing video games. Many professional gamers (Yes, they’re real. Yes, they make millions of dollars too.) use this platform to host tournaments as well as show new players tips and tricks to the games they’re playing.
With the quarantine going on, many people have turned to the escapism offered in books. Amazon has its Kindle for ebook reading, but they also have a subscription service for books called Kindle Unlimited.
To couple with their Kindle books, they own Audible. By owning Audible, they have a way for people to listen to books while doing other tasks, such as the long commute to work from their bed to their home work station.
Great Investments
I kind of hinted at some of the better investments that Amazon has made, but some of the best ones are yet to be announced.
First off, their delivery service is becoming less hands-on with their ability to deliver some products via drones.
They also invested heavily in an electric truck company called Rivian. This would allow them to cut down on their delivery costs, making their profit margin even greater.
Many people are now spending more time at home and are getting more packages, so they are investing in the Ring doorbell. Guess what? That company is owned by Amazon.
Amazon is the proud owner of Pill Pack, a supplement company. Being the owner of their own supplements helps them make more with the shipments because supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry.
Not only that, Amazon, as I mentioned earlier, owns Whole Foods. This makes their food delivery service, Amazon Fresh, much more sustainable and personal for some people.
The last, and most important investment Amazon is making is in their customers and themselves.
This is a dual-purpose objective. They are hiring like crazy. Not only is it to help give people better service, but it’s to help the company grow. Which reiterates my point of them being a good stock market investment.
In doing this though, they are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. They hired 100,000 in March and have been looking to hire at least 75,000 more this month.
Long story short: Amazon cares about its customers, and their customers care about them back.