Amazon.com operates at a loss and is subsidized entirely by Amazon Web Services. The entire company, along with its subsidiaries, are funded by AWS. The reason is that a loss in online retail is miniscule compared to the billions brought in each quarter, and that keeping a customer contained in the Amazon family of brands and services is more important than driving them away from a lost order, or a refusal of a refund. This is also one of the reasons why they can keep their prices so low, they purposefully low so the customer never has to leave the Amazon.com store.