Seattle — Amazon ended 2024 with a 10% increase in net sales for the quarter and 11% for the year. However, its guidance for the Q1 2025 is clouded by an anticipated $2.1 billion foreign exchange rate hit.

Net sales in the fourth quarter reached $187.8 billion, led by the company’s AWS segment, which was up 19% year-over-year, although North America and international also booked gains of 10% and 8%, respectively.

Similar gains were achieved by those divisions for the full year, with AWS up 19%, North America up 11% and international up 9% for yearly net sales of $638 billion.

“The holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon, and we appreciate the support of our customers, selling partners and employees who helped make it so,” said Andy Jassy, president and CEO. “When we look back on this quarter several years from now, I suspect what we’ll most remember is the remarkable innovation delivered across all of our businesses,” he said, calling out AWS introductions including the Trainium2 AI chip, as well as Amazon Nova, Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Sagemaker.

Operating income for the company increased by $21.2 billion in the quarter vs. $13.2 billion in the same quarter in 2023, while net income grew by $20 billion or $1.86 per diluted share vs. $10.6 billion or $1 per diluted share a year earlier.

Amazon ended the full year with operating income of $68.6 billion and net income of $59.2 billion or $5.53 per diluted share compared with $30.4 billion or $2.90 per diluted share in 2023.

Along with the tech-related highlights, Amazon called out its fastest delivery speeds yet for Prime members in Q4, delivering at least 65% more items the same day or overnight to Prime users than in the same quarter in 2023. Its Black Friday Week was “record breaking,” according to the company, and its Cyber Monday deal event was its largest ever for independent sellers.

First quarter 2025 guidance shows net sales of between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, an increase of 5% to 9% vs. first quarter of 2024. This is based on guidance that anticipates “an unusually large, unfavorable impact” of $2.1 billion from foreign exchange rates. Operating income for the first quarter is expected to be between $14 billion and $18 billion in comparison with $15.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024.

See also:

• Home merch, Amazon found favor among shoppers, Numerator’s holiday survey reveals
• It’s on! Amazon takes the fight to dirt cheap marketplaces

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