NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Amazon.com Tuesday reported a narrower first-quarter loss that topped Wall Street forecasts as sales jumped 21 percent and the online retailer slashed expenses.

The Seattle-based Internet retailer also raised the bar for the second quarter and all of 2002.

After the closing bell, Amazon said it lost $5 million, or a penny a share, excluding one-time charges in the quarter, compared with a loss of $76 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts had expected a loss of 9 cents a share on average, according to a survey conducted by First Call, which tracks Wall Street forecasts.

Amazon's net loss for the first quarter -- including restructuring-related and other charges -- was $23 million, or 6 cents a share, down from a net loss of $234 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Sales jumped 21 percent to $847 million from $700 million, topping the $805 million analysts in general had expected, according to the First-Call survey.

For the second quarter, Amazon said it expects revenue of $765 million-to-$815 million. At last count, most analysts had expected second-quarter revenue nearer $751 million.

For all of 2002, Amazon said it expects to report a more than 15 percent increase in revenue. The latest consensus estimate of analysts was for Amazon's revenue in 2002 to come in at roughly $3.5 billion, suggesting an 11 percent increase over the $3.1 billion it reported in 2001.

Shares of Amazon (AMZN: Research, Estimates) jumped 6 percent to $14.89 in after-hours trading Tuesday following the news, after falling during regular trading on Nasdaq.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, attributed the stronger-than-expected first-quarter results in large part to lower-priced items and promotions including free shipping on orders over $99.

Moving forward, Bezos said Amazon will cut its book prices so that books listing for $15 and above carry a 30 percent discount.

Taking such measures will have a near-term impact on Amazon's gross margins, the percentage of sales remaining after subtracting product costs, Bezos said. But he said the strategy will yield benefits in the long run because of increased volume of sales.

"These price cuts ... do pressure our margins, but at the same time what they do is drive a lot of volume which helps us because we have a high fixed-cost structure," Bezos said in an interview on CNNfn's Street Sweep program Tuesday.

"We get to move more units across that same fixed-cost structure. So it does help our business and help customers at the same time," Bezos said.

During the first quarter, Amazon's gross margin was 26.3 percent, compared with 26 percent a year earlier.

Amazon's Bezos

Amazon's operating expenses in the first quarter were substantially lower than they were during the same period a year earlier, totaling $221.4 million, compared with $399.2 million in last year's first quarter.

Much of that can be attribute to job cuts. Last year, the company cut 15 percent of its work force as it struggled to achieve profitability to appease impatient investors.

During the first quarter, Amazon's U.S. books, music and video business segment -- the company's largest -- logged total revenue of $443 million, an 8 percent rise from the year-ago period.

The company's other major U.S. business segment -- electronics, tools and kitchen products -- had revenue of $126.2 million, also an 8 percent rise over the same quarter a year ago.

Amazon's international sales growth was the strongest during the quarter. At $225.5 million, sales outside the U.S. were 71 percent higher than the same quarter last year, the company said.

Speculation in the market recently holds that Barry Diller, the founder of USA Networks who is slated to become chairman of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, has had his eye on Amazon as a potential takeover target. Diller has long been interested in expanding his company's interactive businesses.

While he said it was his policy to not comment on rumors of that type, Bezos told CNNfn that, in general, Amazon is "very happy as an independent company and very focused on continuing to be an independent company."

Bezos, 37, founded Amazon.com in 1994. He and his family own about one-third of the company's stock.