Amazon says 2008 holiday season was 'best ever': http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081226/amazoncom_holiday_sales.html
You need to stop sniffing glue before thinking up thread topics. Companies are under tremendous pressure to report things accurately. The executive officers can be heavily fined or imprisoned for making or approving false statements. It is called "fiduciary responsibility." So, randomly picking a company that reports success as being untrue is VERY strange...
They won't mention nominal $ amounts, just number of orders. That is to be expected at any business running on a price leader model. I would expect used products to gain volume while brand new overpriced to drop. Note that craigslist sales & trading are up significantly.
im guessing it was there best gross selling year ever, prob most online retailers also. i guess the issue is how much they discounted. when you look at overall retail sales numbers you have to remember autos and gasoline are included. we all know people are not buying as many cars. but dotn forget about gas, if people are buying the same amount of gas by volume, they are spending 1/2 as much as december 2007. was 2008 retail really that bad? Total retail sales dropped 5.5% to 8% for November and December, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit. The 40% drop in the price of gasoline compared to December 2007 accounts for almost half of the decline.
this is akin to how the malls are all packed with shoppers yet every retailer except maybe walmart is reporting yoy declines. high sales doesn't mean high profits, and ultimately profit is what a business needs in order to survive.
Don't believe the hype behind the news at amazon, with the amount of sales and price cuts they and every retailer have offered the customer, margins are going to drop significantly.
Is it 1999 Again? Shoppers Choose Amazon.com In Record Numbers For Holiday Shopping Strong Sales in Tools, Electronics and Toys More than 2.5 Million New Customers in Holiday Season; Company Achieves $2.6 Billion Sales Run-Rate SEATTLE-January 5, 2000--Powered by a strong holiday season, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced today that its 1999 fourth-quarter sales totaled more than $650 million, more than two and one-half times 1998's fourth quarter sales of $253 million and greater than its $610 million in sales for the whole year of 1998. Based on fourth quarter sales, Amazon.com has reached a $2.6 billion annualized sales level less than four and one-half years after opening for business. Shoppers seeking to save time and money, avoid holiday shopping hassles, and select the ideal gift produced strong sales across all Amazon.com product lines. Customer demand in Amazon.com's newer stores was so strong that they accounted for more than half of total company revenues, with U.S.-based book sales accounting for the rest. As recently as 18 months ago, Amazon.com only sold books from its U.S. base. Amazon.com began the holiday shopping season on Nov. 10, with the launch of its home improvement, software, video games, and gift stores. From then until Dec. 31 (just over 7 weeks): More than 2.5 million new customers shopped with Amazon.com for the first time. Amazon.com shipped roughly 20 million items. The company experienced peak shipping of approximately $16 million in one day, more than total company sales in 1996. Well over 99% of orders shipped in time to meet holiday deadlines--even orders placed as late as Dec. 23. Amazon.com was the top-ranked e-commerce site for the holiday shopping season from Nov. 22 to Dec. 26, with an average of 5,693,000 unique visitors a week, according to Media Metrix. Amazon.com was also the sixth most-visited Internet property and the No. 1 e-commerce site in November, according to Media Metrix (most recent data). Amazon.com was the No. 1 shopping destination for 42 percent of online shoppers during the holiday season, according to a survey of online shoppers by Ernst & Young. "We're especially grateful that so many customers chose Amazon.com for tools, electronics and toys," said Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "Everyone at Amazon.com worked hard and succeeded at delivering a great shopping experience for our customers." "We invested heavily in distribution capability, and we are very pleased that we shipped well over 99% of orders in time for the holidays," said Joe Galli, Amazon.com president and chief operating officer. "In 2000, we'll continue to raise our standard for customer service while driving productivity, capital efficiency and operational excellence across our entire distribution network." "Consistent with our strategy, we went all-out to make sure we delivered for customers this holiday season," said Warren Jenson, Amazon.com chief financial officer. "As a result, our higher seasonal sales will not translate into lower net losses in the fourth quarter. In addition, we will incur higher-than-expected inventory-related charges and write-downs, in large part because we carried deep inventory in start-up businesses such as toys and electronics." Amazon.com expects to release complete 1999 fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results on February 2, 2000. Only four years after it opened its virtual doors, Amazon.com has become the most widely recognized e-commerce brand in the United States, as rated by online shoppers in a nationwide survey by Opinion Research Corp. Some 117.8 million adults, or 60 percent of the adult population in the U.S., recognize the Amazon.com brand, according to the survey. In addition, Amazon.com was ranked the 57th most valuable brand worldwide, just above Hilton, Guinness, and Marriott, and just below Pampers, in a June study of global brands by Interbrand Newell and Sorrell