For Black Friday, Amazon is leaning into a first-ever National Football League game and new discounts to boost sales. But the company is also facing a series of worker strikes and protests across warehouses in the U.S. and Europe. AMZN stock traded mostly flat on Friday.
Last year, Amazon said it recorded its largest Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend sales ever, with "hundreds of millions of products sold." However, the company saw its fourth-quarter e-commerce sales for 2022 fall 2.3%, year over year, to $64.5 billion.
Amazon this year is betting on a busy holiday shopping season. That was first signaled in September, when the e-commerce giant announced plans to hire 250,000 seasonal employees, up 67% from last year.
With Black Friday acting as the official start of the shopping season, here is what to know about Amazon's strategy for the day and AMZN stock:
NFL on Prime
The New York Jets will host the Miami Dolphins at 3 p.m. EST today — marking the first-ever National Football League game on Black Friday. Amazon is the exclusive broadcaster for the matchup. The stream is available to anyone with an Amazon.com account, the company said, not just Prime members.
For Amazon, the arrangement offers a way to boost live offerings on its Prime steaming service. Amazon began broadcasting NFL games on Thursday nights last year.
But it is also a major opportunity for Amazon's fast-growing advertising business. Amazon will display new discounts and QR codes for direct shopping throughout the game. There will also be "limited quantity product drops" from brands such as Dyson and Nintendo, according to Amazon.
For the actual shopping itself, the company said new deals will "drop" as often as every five minutes on Amazon.com between Black Friday and so-called Cyber Monday on Nov. 27.
Strikes, Protests
Meanwhile, Amazon is facing a series of strikes and protests in its warehouses for better pay and working conditions. A global campaign known as "Make Amazon Pay," organized by the group UNI Global Union, expects strikes, protests and other actions in more than 30 countries. The strikes are timed with the start of the all-important shopping season.
An Amazon spokesperson in Germany told the Wall Street Journal that strikes will not affect its deliveries.
But UNI Global Union expects furthers protests soon by workers and climate activists, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
AMZN Stock: Retail Sales Expectations
Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Amazon acknowledged customers have put off buying some expensive items in response to inflation and other economic concerns.
"We still see customers remaining cautious about price, trading down where they can and seeking out deals, coupled with lower spending on discretionary items," said Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky on the company's third-quarter earnings call.
Overall, the National Retail Federation expects holiday sales in the U.S. to grow between 3% and 4% year over year. That would mark a return to the pre-pandemic growth rate, after holiday sales surged 12% in 2021 and 5.4% in 2022.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect Amazon's December quarter sales to climb 7% year over year to $69 billion. That would mark a record quarterly total for its "Online Stores" division, topping the $66.5 billion from the December 2020 quarter, according to FactSet data.
A recent Goldman Sachs survey on holiday spending found that a majority of U.S. consumers plan to spend the same or more this year. But about two-thirds of the 1,000 surveyed described discounts as more important this year than previously.
"Amazon and Walmart remain the most popular destinations for holiday shopping, though value-seeking consumers showed a strong sequential increase for Walmart this year," the Nov. 20 Goldman Sachs report said.
AMZN Stock: Hovering Below Buy Point
AMZN stock closed up fractionally on the stock market today.
Further, shares have gained 73% this year after a 49% drop last year. Shares are hovering near a 145.86 buy point, according to IBD MarketSmith.
