This week the quarterly reports hit the news and Wall Street – Amazon is now worth more than Walmart. Surprising or inevitable? Find out what Ronn Torossian has to say about this matter on his latest presentation.

1. Amazon just passed Walmart, but has the
web surpassed the brick and mortar store?

2. Did Amazon Prime Day signal a sea change in retail? Some called it a flop,
some questioned if Amazon was crazy and they predicted a bad outcome.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is crazy like a fox, and explains what seemed like farce at
the time is turning into the stuff of PR legend. This week the quarterly
reports hit the news and Wall Street – Amazon is now worth more than
Walmart. Let that sink in.
Everything was up in their reports, and up went its stock – by more than 10%
of the total value of the company. Amazon is now worth about $250 billion,
and Walmart is at $230 billion. Amazon Prime Day was partly a celebration of
their 20 years in business, but it was also the tossing down of a gauntlet.
Amazon saying: “We are even bigger than Black Friday.”

3. Jeff Bezos has guided the company with his long-term vision since the
beginning. Sometimes Amazon didn’t make a profit, but Bezos continued
with his expansion plans. Growing the company every year and in the
process, adding more and more items to the sales roster. To get this all in
perspective, Amazon Prime members pay $99 per year for membership. In
return a huge number of the items Amazon sells are shipped to members
using 2-day shipping at the cost of $0 to the customer.
All of that free shipping costs Amazon more than $4 billion annually – that’s
more than 5% of Amazon’s total sales. Customers love that, but many of its
shareholders have pushed Bezos to change that deal because of costs. Bezos
continues his long-term endgame, keeping customers returning often
knowing the long-term return is worth the short term sacrifice.

4. Ten or fifteen years ago when Amazon was a fledgling operation, consumers
were still spending more of their money in traditional brick and mortar
stores. Many people were very distrustful about giving their information to
online shopping sites. But over those years, the tides have shifted and
people are doing more of the shopping online.
Amazon has prepared for this. Bezos has honed his efforts with the belief this
would be the outcome and it is paying off big time. They have already
watched brick and mortar bookstores like Borders close their doors because
of an inability to compete with Amazon. But Amazon stopped being just a
bookstore some time ago. Walmart may now be in their crosshairs. Walmart
is falling behind in their online efforts, and without some big changes, they
may not recover.

5. Bezos is now worth about $43 billion as an individual. Moving him up
the chain to become the 7th richest person on the planet. Don’t ever
underestimate the value of a good sale – even if it seemed to be as
much spoof as sale when it happened. Time and time again Bezos has
proven his ability to bring the public to his table and that’s the secret to
his and Amazon’s success.

6. 5WPR CEO and Founder of the Ronn Torossian Foundation, Ronn
Torossian was born August 25th, 1974 in Brooklyn, NY.