'Great' Not Enough for Amazon

Along with revenue growth, investors will again pay close attention to factors influencing operating margins. These include the number of high-margin third-party sellers the company can attract, the mix of goods sold and spending on technology and content.

And while Amazon isn't expected to profit directly off the sale of the popular new Harry Potter book, signs of spillover benefits like increased site traffic could be greeted with enthusiasm.

Investors will also watch for any hopeful word about the company's progress into new digital arenas. Initiatives like the Unbox video-streaming service and Amazon Web services help support the argument that the company isn't just a retail giant but a technological innovator as well.

While receiving poor reviews after its initial launch, Unbox showed signs of progress over the quarter. Amazon announced a partnership with TiVo(TIVO Quote) that would allow customers to buy or rent Unbox videos directly from their TiVo sets. "As a customer of TiVo and Amazon Unbox, we can say with validation that the new service offers an outstanding consumer experience and that we believe it is only content agreements away from being broadly adopted by TiVo users," Devitt wrote.

Uptake for Amazon's Web services, which rent computing power and storage space to businesses, is also expected to be strong. Amazon management has said that this division, in time, could rival the size of Amazon's core retail business, while conceding it will be a long time before the investment starts reaping benefits.