What: The online retailer struggles to build off the dramatic gains it made early in the pandemic. Revenue will be USD $116 billion to USD $121 billion in the period ending in June, Amazon said in a statement.

Why it is important: That’s the slowest pace of growth since 2001, and marks the first time Amazon has ever recorded back-to-back quarters of less than 10% revenue growth.

Amazon has been grappling with rising energy and labor costs and changing shopping habits as people return to pre-pandemic activities. Despite those pressures, Wall Street analysts have been nearly unanimous in their optimism about Amazon’s prospects, citing the company’s massive investments in package handling and delivery capacity and continued growth in its highly profitable cloud-computing and advertising businesses.

The company also reported a net loss of USD $3.8 billion, or USD $7.56 a share, compared with profit of USD $8.1 billion, or USD $15.79 a share, in the period a year ago.

Amazon projects slower growth