Amazon earnings: 100 million members could be the company’s Prime number

Amazon hit a milestone with 100 million Prime members, but experts are debating whether this means a prime future or the end of an era for the company. In response, Jeff Bezos cited international expansion in countries like India as a strategy for growth. Analysts foresee a fruitful future if Amazon continues to benefit from growing US online sales, faster delivery through more convenient channels, and the overall shift of spending from offline to online markets.

Yet not everyone is convinced. In a comment to MarketWatch, Vivaldi Partner Pete Killian noted, “Amazon’s growth has been breathtaking and impressive, but there is no way they can continue at that scale. They need to find $25 billion-plus of topline growth every year to maintain their growth rate, and at some point that outstrips the speed of consumers’ behavior change. So the ‘hole’ in the 100 million number is that it’s the victim of its own success: there really is not much higher to go.” When discussing the retailer’s new partnership with Best Buy, he said, “For Amazon to maintain their breakneck growth rates—both speed and scale of growth—they need to quickly enter physical channels too.”