There's been a clear trend toward e-commerce over the past decade or so, but it was certainly accelerated in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic. And as you might expect, Amazon.com (AMZN 0.89%) was one of the biggest beneficiaries. In this Fool Live video clip, recorded on Jan. 25, Fool.com contributors Matt Frankel, CFP, and Brian Withers discuss what the post-pandemic world could hold for the e-commerce leader.
Brian Withers: Amazon, the company, there's two recent announcements that I'm really interested in that show both how massive this company is, as well as the same time, the opportunity still yet to go. It's almost an interesting dichotomy with this company that it's so huge -- $1.6 trillion market cap -- but it's still got plenty of opportunity.
It's buying 11 767-300 aircraft from WestJet in Dallas. I don't know of any other company besides an airline that's buying 11 767s, and they're going to roll them out over the next couple of years. They convert them from passenger to cargo.
The other piece, the opportunity piece, is Amazon just announced its first fulfillment center in Louisiana. The state hasn't had a fulfillment center. That's just amazing to me. There's almost 5 million people in Louisiana, and Amazon is going to have their first fulfillment center outside Lafayette. It's got about 500 jobs by 2021, but that will continue to grow and that will create indirect jobs. So tons of excitement for the communities, and Louisiana will get faster shipping because of it.
Amazon announces next Tuesday after market close. What to watch for the holiday quarter is going to be record-setting. There's no doubt, it's going to be their biggest e-commerce quarter ever. But I'm really looking beyond next quarter when they start to lap these COVID-fueled growth quarters. Can the company continue to hit double-digit growth or maybe even 20%? They were hitting 20% pre-COVID growth for e-commerce. With this big, huge bump, will they be able to continue to be double digits or maybe even 20%?
