U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) has claimed that it is a friend not a “killer” to traditional retailers in Europe.
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European Allies
In an interview with Euronews Business, Amazon’s Vice President of EU stores Mariangela Marseglia said that there are over 127,000 European small and medium-sized businesses thriving on Amazon’s marketplace. “We are not a killer. We are actually an ally, a catalyst for their growth,” she said. “We simplify their jobs such as exporting to foreign countries in a very easy way.”
She added that Amazon contributes €41 billion to the EU’s GDP despite it being a harder place to do business than the U.S.
“We should do more to strengthen Europe as a single market. We are still operating a little bit like 27 different marketplaces,” she said.
Retail Harmony
Marseglia also claimed that despite some high profile store closures across the continent that traditional high street retail and e-commerce can co-exist.
“Customers are not either high street or e-commerce, they do both,” she said. “Online stores, like Amazon, are a great way to source specialist or rare items which high street stores simply don’t have the space to stock.”
She added that EU shoppers were also becoming more interested in special deals events such as Prime Day or Black Friday. “They tend to wait for those moments to kind of get great deals and save some money,” she said.
Her comments come at a sensitive time for U.S. tech firms in Europe with governments and regulators increasingly looking to clamp down on alleged anti-competition practices. That’s down to concerns over the impact on European businesses but also a nod to the changed geopolitical relationship between it and the U.S. under President Trump.
Is AMZN a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, AMZN has a Strong Buy consensus based on 46 Buy and 1 Hold ratings. Its highest price target is $305. AMZN stock’s consensus price target is $242.48 implying a 15.64% upside.
