Brian T. Olsavsky - Amazon.com, Inc.
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question
Sure. Let's start with unit growth. So I will note, we did a very strong unit growth rate last year in Q2, with 27%, so we're comping against that. As we look back on that, there were number of factors. I mean, in any quarter there can be product mix or ASP differentials which shift the unit growth figure, but if you also remember, we dropped our Super Saver Shipping threshold twice, the early part of last year from $49 to $35; and then down to $25. So there was a bit of growth, particularly in lower ASP items from that, that we saw last year. So we're comping that. Another factor is digital content that moves to subscription. So Amazon Music and Kindle Unlimited, while they're very successful and it's a good transition, they just – the units do not count in this unit calculation. So there's some things like that, that maybe obfuscate the numbers a bit, but we're really pleased with the retail growth. We think it's driven by again Prime, the Prime program, the engagement of Prime customers as well as increased selection, and particularly third-party selection. On operations, if you look at probably the last 18 months, you're going to see a lot of different pace of increase in both infrastructure costs and capital costs, and the addition of fixed cost heads. So one thing that you'll notice is that, we've grown – we've stepped down our rate of growth of fixed head count, excluding the acquisitions we've grown 26% year-over-year at the end of June, on a trailing 12 month basis. But 23% of that was in the second half of last year. So we are continuing to look at where we're investing head count. We're seeing a lot of our growth areas being fueled by head count that's moving within the company. There's a lot of movement of tech head count. And so there was less external hiring in the first half of this year. We don't think that, that's necessarily the long-term trend, but it certainly created a lot of operating efficiencies, and now we'll reset and evaluate where we need to still add people. So I think the first half of the year could be a good test of where our cost structure is, coming off of the investment that leads up to the holiday. Last year, there was a lot of first half investment. If you look back on infrastructure and fixed head count that may be made that less pronounced. But this year it's a little more apparent.