Bezos: Mexico launch is Amazon highlight in Q2

The launch of a Spanish language physical goods store for the Mexican market was one of the highlights for e-retail giant Amazon in 2Q15, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

In a statement of Amazon's Q2 results, Bezos referred to the June 30 launch of a local Amazon presence that offers the Mexican public more categories than any other international Amazon website at startup, as well as the opportunity for Mexicans to sell their products on Amazon.com.mx.

"The expansion of Amazon.com.mx represents Amazon's biggest international launch ever," Juan Carlos García, Country Manager for Amazon Mexico said at the time. The launch in Mexico was built on the success of the Kindle Store that opened for Mexican customers in 2013.

Amazon.com.mx offers Mexicans new payment methods, including a monthly payments option due to agreements with local financial institutions.

The website also offers free shipping on purchases of 599 pesos (US$37) and above and the option of picking up purchass from hundreds of locations across the country.

And to boosting local e-commerce, sellers can offer products for a zero product listing fee with payment processing and credit card fraud protection.

According to an e-readiness study carried out for Visa by Euro Monitor International, e-commerce sales value in Mexico will grow 10.3% annually through 2018 from US$8.6bn in 2013.

And, according to a study by IDC and PayPal, Mexico has the largest number of people in Latin America who spent over US$10,000 online in the last year.

AMAZON Q2

On Thursday Amazon posted 20% year-on-year growth in net sales to US$23.2bn in 2Q15. Excluding a US$1.39bn unfavorable impact from year-on-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 27% compared to 2Q14.

Net income reached US$92mn compared with a net loss of US$126mn in 2Q14.

International sales grew 3% to US$7.57bn. Amazon Web Services (AWS) saw an 81% hike in net sales to US$1.82bn, while North America posted a 26% increase in sales.

In terms of products sold, electronics and other general merchandise accounted for the largest proportion of sales, followed by media products.

Bezos underscored several other highlights during the quarter, including introducing the Alexa Voice service to third party hardware makers, giving them the tools to integrate Alexa into internet-connected devices.

The company said that India continues to be the company's fastest growing market in sales and with over 25mn products.

AWS announced that it will open India as a new region in 2016 to offer the possibility for Indian companies to run workloads more efficiently.