Amazon, the online retailer, had a jubilant Christmas, with UK sales recorded at delivering up to 480,000 gifts a day in the run-up to the festive weekend. On its busiest day, Amazon.co.uk shipped more than 256 tonnes of goods, with a Royal Mail truck leaving one of its three distribution centres every 15 minutes. December 12 proved to be the busiest day for orders across the company’s worldwide business, with customers buying a total of 3.6m items – 41 items every second. More than 108m orders were placed globally during the whole of the holiday season.

The company has delivered gifts and products free of charge when customers spent at least £15 on its UK website – down from £19 last year – in a bid to combat tough competition among retailers. In October, the group warned that sales growth across its global operations in the final quarter of this year could be as low as 13% – well below the 31% recorded in the same period of last year. Amazon.co.uk, which began life as Bookpages in 1996 and was acquired by Amazon.com in early 1998, is unlikely to be the only online retailer to report a bumper Christmas.

In the run-up to the festive season, IMRG, a body representing retail sites, reported a 50% year on year rise in sales in the 12 months to November 2005. UK internet sales reached a record £2bn during the month, while high-street sales for the same period grew by only 0.9%.

Click Here: thierry mugler angel