While brick-and-mortar retailers appear to be living through a nightmare of a holiday sales season since the better-than-expected crowds of Black Friday weekend a month ago, online retail superstar Amazon.com is reporting not only a decent selling period via the Internet—but its best holiday sales season ever.
On its peak day (Monday, Dec. 15), it ca-chinged a 17 percent jump in orders for most product categories—including HD, Blu-ray Disc, and other consumer electronics. The pioneering online retailer said more than 6.3 million products were ordered during its peak day (versus 5.4 million on its peak day a year ago).
As far as actual shipments, Amazon.com moved more than 5.6 million items on Dec 15 (44 percent over 2007's best single day), according to The Washington Post. This year held five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Dec. 25 that 2007, which some analysts think may have actually helped Amazon.com because panicked time-strapped shoppers chose to avoid the malls and go directly online for their buys.
Apart from Nintendo's Wii and the Apple iPod line, one of Amazon.com's most popular CE products was Samsung's 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HD with Red Touch of Color (model LN52A630). The online retailer had shaved off about $700 of the unit's MSRP of $2,500.
