Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has achieved two consecutive quarters of excellent profit growth. With that recent success comes heightened expectations for the current quarter, and many industry pundits are wondering if the world's largest online retailer can hit its lofty goals yet again.

Well, that time has come, as the retailer will post its most recent quarterly earnings Tuesday after the close of the market. Consensus estimates predict an operating profit of $108 million, which is a 170% lift from the year-ago quarter. That is the definition of a lofty goal. Can Amazon.com hit the mark? Predictions are holding steady on a sales figure of $3.14 billion for the quarter and an EPS of $0.18, which would be miles ahead of the year-ago quarterly figures of $2.31 billion and $0.05 EPS.

One of the key features of a raised outlook from the market includes the rising proliferation of third-party sellers that are using Amazon's website and ordering system to sell goods to buyers, which sounds increasingly like what eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) does. I would go as far as saying that many eBay sellers are increasingly using Amazon.com as an additional storefront. Does eBay have new competition in town? It has for a while, but now it may be getting more tense. To those that are tired of eBay's online third-party selling platform dominance, this news is quite good.

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