4 ms·

traffic != sales The whole industry is experiencing a surge in online-window-shopping. Amazon is probably seeing a few blackfridays increase.

garrettgrimsley 7y ago
To add yet another data point as the many other commenters have already done: I work at UPS in a distribution hub. Today, Friday April 17th, we're doing parcel volume of around 215,000. On a typical Friday this time of year we do around about 120,000 parcels. My hub is hiring more workers, extending shifts, and asking more workers to work double-shifts. Volume has increased so much at some hubs that the volume is being re-routed through other hubs to help deal with it. Why else would Amazon be hiring 175,000 people in a month? We're experience peak season volume in April. Online sales are absolutely up.
drclau 7y ago
Do you have some data or know where I can find something? I'm genuinely curious.
ambicapter 7y ago
I work for an ecommerce business and can attest that orders are up in accordance with the headline.
- guac 7y ago
  Same here. We're seeing very out-of-season numbers. In fact we saw another massive uptick this week that was suspiciously timed with the stimulus direct deposits going out (Tuesday/Wed morn).
bitreality 7y ago
It's two facets. On the one hand, people are definitely buying more essential products. They are also definitely visiting more ecommerce sites. They're bored, online shopping is a thing to do. Most people aren't at the point where they feel they need to drastically cut their spending. Most developed countries have some sort of payment going out to at least the unemployed. Also, even the newly unemployed have only been in that position for a few weeks. The people who are still employed, whether that's remote or whatever, have a surplus of money they normally would spend on things like travel, events, and dining out. They are absolutely not worried about spending money on discretionaries. The reality is, people still have a ton of money to spend. And less places to spend it. This recession is just barely getting started.

garrettgrimsley 7y ago

To add yet another data point as the many other commenters have already done: I work at UPS in a distribution hub. Today, Friday April 17th, we're doing parcel volume of around 215,000. On a typical Friday this time of year we do around about 120,000 parcels. My hub is hiring more workers, extending shifts, and asking more workers to work double-shifts. Volume has increased so much at some hubs that the volume is being re-routed through other hubs to help deal with it. Why else would Amazon be hiring 175,000 people in a month? We're experience peak season volume in April. Online sales are absolutely up.

drclau 7y ago

Do you have some data or know where I can find something? I'm genuinely curious.

ambicapter 7y ago

I work for an ecommerce business and can attest that orders are up in accordance with the headline.

guac 7y ago
Same here. We're seeing very out-of-season numbers. In fact we saw another massive uptick this week that was suspiciously timed with the stimulus direct deposits going out (Tuesday/Wed morn).

bitreality 7y ago

It's two facets. On the one hand, people are definitely buying more essential products. They are also definitely visiting more ecommerce sites. They're bored, online shopping is a thing to do. Most people aren't at the point where they feel they need to drastically cut their spending. Most developed countries have some sort of payment going out to at least the unemployed. Also, even the newly unemployed have only been in that position for a few weeks. The people who are still employed, whether that's remote or whatever, have a surplus of money they normally would spend on things like travel, events, and dining out. They are absolutely not worried about spending money on discretionaries. The reality is, people still have a ton of money to spend. And less places to spend it. This recession is just barely getting started.