E-commerce juggernaut Amazon reported this holiday season was its
best ever in terms of volume sales. And holiday shoppers didn’t even wait
until the last minute to take advantage, either.
Amazon said Monday, Dec. 11 was its busiest day ever with over 4 million items sold compared to 3.6 million items a year ago.
Although it didn’t release data on meeting specific delivery dates, Amazon
claimed it shipped more than 99 percent of its orders in time to meet
holiday deadlines worldwide.
On the peak day, Amazon shipped some 3.4 million units worldwide (to over 200 countries).
“If you look at overall trends, more and more people are comfortable buying
online, and in e-commerce Amazon has a very strong leadership position,” Tim
Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies, told internetnews.com.
“Their biggest challenge going forward is finding ways to attract new
customers while maintaining the ones they have. They are facing more
competitive challenges than ever before; for example, Barnes & Noble is
getting stronger in online book sales.”
For a little fun with its e-commerce statistics, Amazon also released a list of “holiday facts” today, highlighting certain sales figures the company achieved.
It sold
enough orange-flavored Airborne health supplements to supply every passenger
on 192 Boeing 747s, as well as enough coffee pods to make coffee for everyone in
Austin, Texas. Also, the Amazon Electronics store said that this year it sold its most expensive MP3 player, the $19,999 Trekstor i.Beat Organix Gold 1GB.
Versions of Apple’s iPod, Canon’s PowerShot Digital Elph
Cameras and Garmin GPS Systems topped Amazon’s list of best-selling consumer
electronics. And in computers, the top sellers were the Apple MacBook 13.3-inch
notebook PC in white and black and the Sony VAIO 15.4-inch notebook PC.
It’s been a busy year for Amazon. In September the Seattle-based
company unveiled
several new services for third-party sellers.
WebStore by Amazon is geared for sellers looking to operate their own
e-commerce sites, with the dependability of Amazon’s back-end technology
behind it.
Online sellers can maintain a privately branded site complete
with its own URL and customized graphics, which includes inventory and sales
management from Amazon. Fulfillment by Amazon includes storing, packing and shipping products and providing customer service.
