Amazon Holiday Sales the "Best Ever"

December 27, 2008
Article from: The Wall Street Journal

AMAZON called its 2008 holiday shopping season "the best ever," despite a series of predictions that even online sales would weaken as US consumers cut back amid the recession.The online retailer said that on its peak day, December 15, it received more than 6.3 million orders, at a record pace of 72.9 items per second. With the world’s biggest economy struggling, online sales were expected to hold up relatively well, while traditional retailers saw a sharp fall-off in customer traffic.

Amazon said top-sellers from November 15 through December 19 included Nintendo's Wii, which dominated the videogame category. Among toys, the best-sellers included Jakks Pacific's Eyeclops night-vision goggles. In the electronics category, Samsung Electronics’ 52-inch LCD High-Definition television and Apple's 8-gigabyte iPod Touch led the gains. Also a strong seller was Acer's Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook. The devices, which have little processing power, screens between nine and 12 inches wide diagonally and typically cost less than $US500 ($729), have been rising in popularity, according to technology-research firm iSupply. Among DVDs, Amazon said Wall-E, The Dark Knight for Blu-ray and The Dark Knight sold well. Top sellers in books included The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling, and two works by Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

Amazon didn't comment on its selling prices or margins for the 2008 holiday season.

Tess Stynes