Amazon said it had its busiest holiday season ever during which time it set a single-day record with more than 2.8 million units ordered worldwide. Additionally, while its books business set a new Thanksgiving Weekend record, consumer electronics sales surpassed book sales on www.amazon.com that weekend and was Amazon's largest sales category for the first time.
On the peak day, Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network shipped over two million units. Amazon.com shipped to 217 countries and delivered over 100,000 shipments to overseas US military personnel at APO/FPO addresses. More than half a million gift certificates were ordered between November 25th and December 24th 2004.
Amazon said its Music store broke a new sales record, selling more than one million units per week for two consecutive weeks in December. The DVD category capped off the year by breaking the one-week order record (for the week ending December 12), and by setting a single title one day order record of over 13,000 units of "Lord of the Rings, Return of the King Extended Edition" on December 14.
Holiday bestsellers included Black & Decker Lids Off Jar Opener; Harry & David's Christmas Classic Tower of Treats; flashlights, poker chips and exercise equipment; computer and video games; nose hair groomers, shavers and electric toothbrushes; and the Black & Decker 25' Auto Tape Measure.
The top selling books this holiday season were "America (the book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction" by Jon Stewart, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom - which also topped the list in 2003, and "Chronicles Vol. 1" by Bob Dylan.
In Music, the hottest sellers were U2's "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb," Clay Aiken's "Merry Christmas with Love," Nirvana's box set "With the Lights Out," Allison Krauss and Union Station's "Lonely Runs Both Ways," Rod Stewart's "Stardust...The Great American Songbook Volume III," Green Day's "American Idiot," Josh Groban's "Live at the Greek," and Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company."
In the DVD/Video category, it was the season of multi-disc sets as the "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition," "Seinfeld" Seasons 1-3 and the "Star Wars Trilogy" led the top sellers.
The top selling electronics products were the Apple 20GB iPod, the Apple 4GB Silver Mini iPod, the Phillips DVP642 DivX Progressive Scan DVD player, the iTunes $15 prepaid Card and the Canon PowerShot SD 110 3MP Digital Elph camera.
Diamonds of all sizes were popular on Amazon in earrings, pendants and bracelets. Other top selling jewelry items included Sterling Silver Blue Topaz Earrings, Paris Hilton's Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystal Heart Pendant on a Satin Cord (16 inch), Paris Hilton's Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystal Star Hoop Earrings, and a Floating Heart Pendant with Diamond.
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