UPDATE: Amazon Says '08 Holiday Season Is 'Best Ever'
By Tess Stynes and Andrew Morse Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Amazon Inc. (AMZN) called its 2008 holiday shopping season "its best ever," even as other data showed retail sales shrinking at a sharp clip.
The Seattle-based online retailer said on Friday orders came in at a record clip in the run-up to the holidays. The buying culminated on Dec. 15, when Amazon said it received more than 6.3 million orders worldwide, or a record 72.9 items a second.
Amazon, which said Nintendo Co.'s (NTDOY) Wii dominated its videogame category and Jakks Pacific Inc.'s (JAKK) Eyeclops night vision stealth goggles was a brisk seller in the toys category, didn't disclose revenue for the holiday shopping period.
The etailer's buoyant performance contrasted with data from a unit of credit card company MasterCard Inc., which said on Thursday that holiday e-commerce sales fell 2.3%. Total retail sales excluding gasoline and automobiles fell 2.5% in November and 4% in December.
After rising as much as 5.8% in premarket trading, Amazon shares were 0.25% higher at $51.57 in early afternoon trading.
Amazon said Samsung Electronics Inc.'s (005930.SE) 52-inch LCD High-Definition television and Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) 8-gigabyte iPod Touch led the gains in its electronics category.
Acer Inc.'s (2353.TW) Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook was also a strong seller at Amazon. The devices - which have little processing power, screens between nine and 12 inches wide diagonally, and typically cost less than $500 - have been rising in popularity, according to technology-research firm iSupply.
Online retailers, like Amazon, may have benefited from poor weather in the two weeks before Christmas, which likely shifted sales volume to the Web-based shops, MasterCard said.
-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2473; tess.stynes@dowjones.com
-By Andrew Morse, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6402; andrew.morse@dowjones.com
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Publié le 26 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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