Amazon.com's Holiday Season Turns Out Cheery

To the amazement of Wall St., Amazon today said it had "its best holiday ever".

In the firm's statement it said "Amazon announced the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second."

The company cataloged the reasons for it success. It posted impressive sales for software, GPS devices, coffee, watches, and CDs.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[kstuff]

It's all about the free shipping and avoiding stressful malls...I love how the gifts just arrive on my doorstep!

[Over40]

Amazon deserves its success and so does CEO Jeff Bezos. Despite predictions of Amazon's doom
all along, he has been right on target in everything he does. They have a fabulous website and a fabulous sytem. They offer a free gifting service, free shipping, no sales tax and even gift-wrapping for a few bucks - and it all takes a few minutes. And how I love their customer reviews system - don't kknow what I'd do without it. And it amazes me that they allow other sellers (books, etc) to use their system to sell their own stock and sometimes underprice them. The whole thing is genius.

[PTAOfficerforObama]

This does not surprise me. Except for a few stocking stuffers, I bought exclusivly from Amazon. The brick and mortar stores, despite saying they were cutting prices, were always more expensive than Amazon. In addition, the service was rude or non existent. Amazon offered free shipping with $25 purchase and so I never paid shipping.

[SaulBloodworth]

Well, I love to hear that!

http://www.amazon.com/Cabal-Saul-Bloodworth/dp/1439200963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219348583&sr=1-1

[Enid]

The once late great Sears ruled with its founders catalogue mail order business.
Amazon has done this on-line. Nothing new just the paperless catalogue backed up with service.
Amazon possibly the new model of retail.

[thevoicereason]

Anyone bothering to look further than Amazon's anual press release that claims vague things like "the best year yet," will find there is no information available to support their claim. They have made no hard figures available, and for all we know the company could be on the verge of bankruptcy. This is the kind of reporting, and lack of inquisitiveness on the part of the reader, that leads us big surprises like Enron, Maddof, WaMu etc... I'm not suggesting that Amazon is going out of business, but please, they issue a press release every year claiming something vague about doing great, they don't support it with numbers, and every year the press regurgitate this 'free ad to bump their stock value' to an unwitting public.

[mistlesuede]

Spent over $700 online at Barnes and Noble and in their stores this year after reading about Amazon having a Halloween mask of PE Obama under the search word "terrorist."

[tiajudita]

I LOVE Amazon and did all of my shopping here except for a few local items and a CD from Tower which hasn't shown up yet. Even if I see something elsewhere online I can get it with Amazon and take advantage of the free shipping. They are very clear about shipping dates and I have never had a problem. Most items arrive well before the estimated delivery date. My old boss used to double click on orders and receive doubles. He had me do the returns and it was always easy to do. I get some personal items for my elderly mother on auto ship and that has been a great convenience along with good savings. They give you an option to skip a shipment in plenty of time.

I have used Amazon since the early days and seen them get better and better. The customer comments and 'look inside the book' features are invaluable. I buy books, music CDs and downloads, DVDs, foodstuffs when on specials, and this year a keyboard, coffee maker and food processor among other diverse items. I like to buy used cookbooks for little cost especially when I am just curious.

I guess I'm just preaching to the choir on this post but Amazon is so important to me.

[Mattie]

I love Amazon too, I did 95% of my shopping there, and order books and electronics all the time. Free shipping, no sales tax, great prices, what's not to love, top it off with great customer service, and I will shop there anytime. I love how they recomend books based on previous books I've bought, or when they tell me that I've already purchased a book. I read all the time, and occassional think a book sounds good, only to discover I've already read it. This doesn't happen with Amazon, it's just a great website!

[seasun]

Amazon is great and they could have done even better if they did not have such a crazy shipping system.

I did some of my Holiday shopping at Amazon, and would have shopped more had it not been for the multiple shipping costs. Very few items qualify for Super Saver shipping so, for people buying multiple items, shipping at Amazon can be extremely costly

[Mattie]

I very rarely run into shipping costs there, I order books, movies, electronics, even shoes and a vacumn this Christmas and didn't have to pay shipping. I've used them for years, and I bet I've only paid shipping a few times, I guess it's the luck of the draw.

[max]

they deserve it......good service

[StyleSista]

I ordered a couple of holiday gifts from Amazon.com this year, had no shipping problems and it saved me some time and money getting my Christmas shopping done.

[Natalie4Obama]

Amazon are great, everything is super cheap and even with super saving shipping I seem to get it 2 or 3 days later.

You can't beat the prices they have for electronics and it is tax free.

I love Borders but they don't sell stuff for under list and as I'm into all kinds of quirky raw food and spiritual books, often Amazon is the only place I can find them.

It's too bad if they donate profits to the RNC but I think Obama will be safe in 2012 considering how low the party stooped in this election and beyond.

[macintoshsauce]

Amazon is the best IMO. They aren't perfect (thanks to the lovely UPS idiots) but they are better than any other retailer in fixing problems when they do go wrong.

I have noticed that UPS really messes up orders sometimes. FedEx is so much better.

[ramblingjohnny]

Lets face it online shopping was made for the holiday season no waiting in line no searching for the items in an overcrowded store. You also save a truckload of time who want to drive 40 minutes to get to a store than spend 20 minutes looking for a damn parking spot half an hour minimum of actual shopping...
So it not a big surprise that Amazon is doing great even in a bleak economy.

[mphalen]

"In the final analysis, Amazon probably did so well because new products such as the Kindle build upon the consumers' impression that the online store firm is endlessly inventive."

That's not why they did so well. They did so well because people like the convenience of ordering online and not having to go out shopping. Especially with gas prices having been so high and people trying to save money anywhere they can, it is a great way to save time and money.

New products and inventiveness? No, try convenience and value.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

Good point. Convenience always wins out. And Amazon has that McDonalds-like name recognition and familiarity. Even people who don't do a lot on the computer know Amazon. When you get that knee-jerk reaction from consumers, where they can go straight to a store or website without even thinking, then you're a success.