7月22日，亞馬遜公布了其2004年第二季度的收益狀況。盡管公司的季度收益低于華爾街專業人士的預測值，但這個網上最大的零售商仍堅稱要繼續實行免費送貨的激勵機制，消息傳出后公司股票在幾小時內狂跌。外電有這樣的報道：The company's forecasts for the third quarter were weaker than analysts expected. "The outlook for the near term, in the September quarter, implies a fairly significant drop in operating margins," Mark Mahaney, an analyst with American Technology Research said. operating margin的意思是“營運利潤率”，指公司扣除非現金支出因素前的利潤率。計算方法是用利息、稅項、折舊、攤銷前收益除以收入，然后乘以百分之百。該比率是衡量企業運營效率的指標。