Online retailers are worried about the long-term implications of the Brexit vote. Most of them expect both labor costs and shipping to get more expensive as the border between the UK and the rest of Europe would easily be crossed.
Brexit hasn’t hurt online retailer Amazon’s sales in the UK. The company hasn’t noticed a fall in its British sales after the country voted to leave the EU.
UK Amazon Sales
UK country manager Doug Gurr has recently mentioned the sales meet their expectations. Moreover, the Seattle-based company is going to open 1.000 new jobs throughout the UK by the end of 2016.
However, Gurr also added that it’s too soon to state that the problems mounting for other retailers won’t eventually affect Amazon. According to Gurr, lots of details should still be worked out since they don’t have a clear idea of the future of the regulatory environment.
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Amazon’s Future Plans
In 2015, Amazon created 2.500 new jobs there and announced its plans to add 2 new fulfillment centers and open additional UK data centers. Together with already mentioned 1.000 new jobs in the UK, Amazon UK employee footprint will reach 15.500. This is a large employee base, so some issues will probably emerge with regard to EU/UK citizenship status post-Brexit.
Gavin Jackson, Amazon Web Services UK chief, notes the best response to the Brexit vote is not to stop investing. As Jackson mentioned during AWS Summit UK, their message is to keep calm and go on innovating in the UK, in cloud computing and AWS. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company would continue making investments in the UK despite the vote.
As for US companies, it will take them years to get seriously hit by the impacts of the Brexit vote. Many experts think tech companies are going to be hit hardest.