Amazon Closes 2020 With Record Earnings, Starts New Year With Announcement That Jeff Bezos Is Stepping Down as CEO

While the coronavirus pandemic has been a major strain on the physical and financial well-being of many, it’s been a blessing for Amazon as consumers continued to do more of their shopping at home. Bolstered by the increase in online shopping due to the pandemic, Amazon announced its highest all-time quarterly revenue in Q4 2020, with earnings reaching $125.56 billion.

Find Out: How Stores and Businesses Are Preparing for a COVID-19 Winter

But the online retailer also launched another surprise during its quarterly earnings report announcement: CEO and company founder Jeff Bezos would be stepping down in the third quarter of 2021, leaving Andy Jassy as CEO. Jassy currently heads up Amazon’s cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services. Bezos will stay on Amazon’s board as executive chair.

Take a look at the major achievements -- and setbacks -- Amazon experienced in 2020.

March: Amazon Workers Stage Walkout in Protest of Company's Coronavirus Response

On March 30, more than a dozen employees at Amazon's Staten Island, New York, warehouse walked off the job to protest how the company responded to a coronavirus outbreak at the facility, CNN reported. The leader of the walkout had asked Amazon to shut down the warehouse for deep cleaning after multiple cases of the coronavirus emerged there, but Amazon kept it open.

At the time of the protest, at least 13 Amazon warehouses had experienced positive coronavirus cases. Workers had raised concerns about conditions at Amazon facilities across the country, including a lack of screening for coronavirus symptoms and inadequate social distancing measures and protective gear.

2020 in Review: The Year for Jeff Bezos

April: Amazon Hires 75,000 Workers To Keep Up With Pandemic Demands

On April 13, Amazon announced that it was hiring for an additional 75,000 positions after bringing on over 100,000 new employees over the previous four weeks, the company said in a blog post.

"We continue to see increased demand as our teams support their communities, and are going to continue to hire," the company stated at the time.

Read More: 23 Secret Ways To Save Money on Amazon

July: Amazon's Valuation Tops $1.5 Billion

Amazon shares topped $3,000 for the first time ever on July 6, pushing its valuation over the $1.5 billion mark, CNN reported. Amazon became the third company to do so, following Apple and Microsoft.

Year in Review: Walmart and Instacart Team Up To Fight Amazon and 17 More of the Biggest Business Moves of 2020

July: Amazon Posts Record Quarter Despite Spending $4 Billion on Coronavirus-Related Expenses

In July, Amazon announced its second-quarter results -- net sales had increased by 40% to $88.9 billion and earnings were up despite high spending on coronavirus-related measures.

"This was another highly unusual quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe,” Bezos said in a statement at the time. “As expected, we spent over $4 billion on incremental COVID-19-related costs in the quarter to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers in this time of high demand — purchasing personal protective equipment, increasing cleaning of our facilities, following new safety process paths, adding new backup family care benefits, and paying a special thank you bonus of over $500 million to front-line employees and delivery partners."

Check Out: Look For These Going Out of Business Sales

September: Amazon Adds 100,000 Operations Jobs

Amazon majorly expanded its workforce once again in September. In a Sept. 14 blog post, the company announced that it was looking to fill 100,000 operations network jobs to man the 100 new facilities it opened that month.

The hiring announcement followed one made earlier in September, which stated that Amazon was looking to fill 33,000 new positions across its corporate and tech teams.

Year in Review: Fortune 500 Companies That Added the Most New Jobs in 2020

October: Amazon Reveals That Nearly 20,000 of Its Workers Got Coronavirus

Amazon shared an update on its employee coronavirus testing results in an Oct. 1 blog post. Although nearly 20,000 employees had tested positive, Amazon's positivity rates remained lower than that of the general population.

"We have done a thorough analysis of data on all 1,372,000 Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees across the U.S. employed at any time from March 1 to September 19, 2020," the blog post stated. "We compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period, accounting for geography and the age composition of our employees to make the data as accurate as possible. Based on this analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods Market employees were the same as it is for the general population rate, we estimate that we would have seen 33,952 cases among our workforce. In reality, 19,816 employees have tested positive or been presumed positive for COVID-19 — 42% lower than the expected number."

Find Out: How Much Is Jeff Bezos Worth?

October: Amazon Has Its Biggest Prime Day Ever

Prime Day may have been delayed in 2020, but that tactical decision looks to have paid off. Amazon confirmed to CNN that Prime Day 2020 was its best on record since the annual event started in 2015. Although Amazon did not release sales figures, experts estimated the company would make as much as $10 billion in sales over the two-day shopping holiday.

Read: The Worst Things To Buy on Amazon

October: Amazon Extends Work-From-Home Option Through Mid-2021

On Oct. 20, Amazon announced that some employees will be able to work from home through June 30, 2021, CNN reported. At the time, Amazon had already reopened its offices with safety measures in place for those who wished to return.

Year in Review: The Year for Facebook

October: Amazon Adds 100,000 Seasonal Jobs

On Oct. 27, Amazon announced that it would be hiring 100,000 seasonal workers to meet the expected holiday demand.

"These new seasonal employees will help pick, pack, and ship customer orders this holiday season," the company said in a blog post. "These new seasonal jobs offer opportunities for pay incentives, benefits, and a path to a longer-term career, or can simply provide extra income and flexibility during the holiday season."

Read: Watch Out, These Billionaires Could Buy Your City

October: Amazon Says It Had Another Blowout Quarter

Amazon announced its third-quarter results on Oct. 29, and it was another blowout quarter as people continued to shop online amid the pandemic. Net sales increased by 37% to $96.1 billion in the third quarter of 2020, compared with $70 billion in the third quarter of 2019.

Year in Review: Companies That Performed Exceptionally Well in 2020

November: Amazon Launches Amazon Pharmacy

On Nov. 17, Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, a new store on Amazon that allows customers to purchase prescription medications online. Amazon Prime members who order from Amazon Pharmacy receive free two-day delivery and up to 80% savings when paying without insurance, the company said in a blog post.

In the News: MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ Ex, Just Gave Away $4.2 Billion; Now One of World’s Top Donors

December: Amazon Announces That It Had Its Biggest Holiday Shopping Season of All Time

Amazon kicked off the holiday shopping season early with Prime Day pushed to mid-October and continued its holiday sales through Cyber Monday. Although the e-commerce giant didn't release official numbers, it announced in a Dec. 1 blog post that this year's holiday shopping season had been "the largest holiday shopping season so far in our company’s history."

December: Amazon Has Its Biggest Quarter Yet

With increasing sales and consumer demand, the company is one of the few that have been hiring like crazy amid the pandemic, adding 500,000 employees in 2020, including 100,000 seasonal workers, according to GeekWire. 

The company revealed revenue figures exceeding $125 billion during its fourth quarter earnings report in February 2021. 

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About the Author

Dawn Allcot

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and content marketing specialist who geeks out about finance, e-commerce, technology, and real estate. Her lengthy list of publishing credits include Bankrate, Lending Tree, and Chase Bank. She is the founder and owner of GeekTravelGuide.net, a travel, technology, and entertainment website. She lives on Long Island, New York, with a veritable menagerie that includes 2 cats, a rambunctious kitten, and three lizards of varying sizes and personalities – plus her two kids and husband. Find her on Twitter, @DawnAllcot.

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