Amazon a holiday hot spot
Amazon's biggest Christmas puts iPods in stockings
Dec 28, 2004
Confirming predictions of a huge Christmas for e-commerce, Amazon.com said Monday that it enjoyed its biggest holiday season ever, and that for the first time in its history it sold more consumer electronics products than any other category during the important Thanksgiving weekend.
The company said it also set a single-day record this holiday season, selling 2.8 million items, or 32 units every second, though it wouldn't identify the specific day.
Shares of Amazon.com soared 9% on the news to $42.25.
Amazon.com said the biggest seller in the consumer electronics category was the Apple 20 GB iPod, followed by the Apple 4 GB silver iPod Mini, while a $15 prepaid iTunes gift card also cracked the top five, along with a DivX Progressive Scan DVD player and a Canon Digital Elph camera.
"That's where the action is," said ChangeWave Research analyst Tobin Smith, who predicted months ago that consumer electronics would represent "a pocket of strength" in retail sales this season. "Kids didn't come home saying they wanted a new skirt for Christmas; they said they wanted an iPod, a flat-screen TV or a game console so they could play 'Halo 2.' "
As for e-commerce, Nielsen//NetRatings, in conjunction with Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Harris Interactive, reported that in the first six weeks of the holiday season, online sales, excluding travel and auctions, rose 28% over the same period last year to $16.7 billion. By contrast, the Association of Shopping Centers is estimating up to only a 3% gain in retail sales this holiday season compared with last. Attempting to lump online and offline sales together, including purchases of gift cards, MasterCard Advisors estimates an increase of 8.1% in holiday sales this year over last.
Amazon.com won't divulge too many numbers, but it did say it sold more than a half-million gift certificates this season and delivered 100,000 shipments of goods to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. It also did not specify the date on which the single-day sales mark was set.
Overall, Amazon.com's best sellers in the DVD/video category were "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition," "Seinfeld Seasons 1-3" and "Star Wars Trilogy," with the sequels "Shrek 2," "Spider-Man 2" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" also breaking into the top 10.
The best-selling video console games were "Halo 2" for Xbox, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for PlayStation 2 and "The Incredibles" for Gameboy Advance.
The hottest CDs were U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," Clay Aiken's "Merry Christmas With Love" and the Nirvana boxed set "With the Lights Out."
The company said it also set a single-day record this holiday season, selling 2.8 million items, or 32 units every second, though it wouldn't identify the specific day.
Shares of Amazon.com soared 9% on the news to $42.25.
Amazon.com said the biggest seller in the consumer electronics category was the Apple 20 GB iPod, followed by the Apple 4 GB silver iPod Mini, while a $15 prepaid iTunes gift card also cracked the top five, along with a DivX Progressive Scan DVD player and a Canon Digital Elph camera.
"That's where the action is," said ChangeWave Research analyst Tobin Smith, who predicted months ago that consumer electronics would represent "a pocket of strength" in retail sales this season. "Kids didn't come home saying they wanted a new skirt for Christmas; they said they wanted an iPod, a flat-screen TV or a game console so they could play 'Halo 2.' "
As for e-commerce, Nielsen//NetRatings, in conjunction with Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Harris Interactive, reported that in the first six weeks of the holiday season, online sales, excluding travel and auctions, rose 28% over the same period last year to $16.7 billion. By contrast, the Association of Shopping Centers is estimating up to only a 3% gain in retail sales this holiday season compared with last. Attempting to lump online and offline sales together, including purchases of gift cards, MasterCard Advisors estimates an increase of 8.1% in holiday sales this year over last.
Amazon.com won't divulge too many numbers, but it did say it sold more than a half-million gift certificates this season and delivered 100,000 shipments of goods to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. It also did not specify the date on which the single-day sales mark was set.
Overall, Amazon.com's best sellers in the DVD/video category were "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition," "Seinfeld Seasons 1-3" and "Star Wars Trilogy," with the sequels "Shrek 2," "Spider-Man 2" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" also breaking into the top 10.
The best-selling video console games were "Halo 2" for Xbox, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for PlayStation 2 and "The Incredibles" for Gameboy Advance.
The hottest CDs were U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," Clay Aiken's "Merry Christmas With Love" and the Nirvana boxed set "With the Lights Out."
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