Amazon’s Dual Reality: Cloud Strength vs. E-Commerce Slowdown
Amazon's dominance in e-commerce belies its slowing growth in the sector, with Q2 2025 North America sales rising just 8% year-over-year. The company's international segment fared worse at 5%, a stark contrast to its double-digit expansion during the 2010s. Core commerce revenue—excluding high-margin segments like advertising—crawled at 5-6%, signaling maturation in its foundational business.
Yet beneath stagnant retail metrics lies a transformed enterprise. AWS continues to anchor profitability while emerging divisions like cloud computing and digital advertising now drive margin expansion. This duality defines Amazon's current chapter: a retail giant grappling with sector saturation while simultaneously operating as a diversified tech conglomerate.
