Are Consumers Still Not Out Of The Recession Era?

After the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) figures were revealed last week, it is being speculated that the company might have taken a massive hit. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) followers concluded their own list of risks included either poor sales in the holiday season throughout the entire industry or Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) seems to have lost its customer base.

Many speculators came to a conclusion that spending in general has taken its toll due to the recession, and customers don’t seem to have recovered from it yet. Customers have become more careful on their spending patterns and keep an eye on how and where each penny is spent. People, nowadays, avoid unnecessary spending. According to the National Retail Federation consensus, there is only a 4.1% raise expected in the sales during the holiday season of November and December. This would round up Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) figures to $616.9 billion for the year. Many analysts have concluded a gloomy year for the two companies, but haven’t been able to conclude the actual reason for this melt down.

On the contrary, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s revenue for the current quarter is expected to shoot up by 20%. Net sales predictions stand between $27.3 billion and $30.3 billion, a 7% and 18% growth in the fourth quarter.

Some analysts also believe that maybe this halt in growth is due to consumers shifting to other e-commerce sites or adopting traditional methods. In this case, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is a potential competitor for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Back in June, Fernando Madeira, head in Latin America was shifted to the US unit. This is a major unit for Walmart (NYSE:WMT). Under Fernando’s supervision, the company has taken major initiatives to improve its e-commerce dealings. For 2016, investments into the e-commerce and digital sector are expected to be around $1.2 and $1.5 billion, which is a dramatic rise over the $1.0 billion spent in the current year.

But results of this year’s online activity for Walmart (NYSE:WMT) paint a bleak picture, as the company only had 34.2 million visitors as compared to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s 103 million visitors. These figures don’t include mobile tracking. Recently, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has introduced apps for mobile users, that use its Fire smartphone and its Prime loyalty program.

Whether Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) plays a role in Walmart (NYSE:WMT) sales or not, this year’s Walmart (NYSE:WMT) quarter is expected to produce poor results. The company recently announced that its expected sales will be worse than the forecasts. But if both companies look at the scenario from a perspective that low sales aren’t due to either Walmart (NYSE:WMT) or Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s poor performance but a slow recovery from the recession, then they might get a relief from the investors and speculators. However, to determine the accuracy of this conclusion, a thorough study of other companies needs to be considered and evaluated in order to ascertain that the perceived hypothesis is accurate and close to the current trends in the stock market in light of the recent economic recession that seems to have affected several business giants.