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Amazon.com’s Tenth Holiday Season is Best Ever; Consumer Electronics is Biggest Category for the First Time in Company’s History


WEBWIRE

SEATTLE -- December 27, 2004 -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced it has finished its busiest holiday season ever during which time it set a single-day record with more than 2.8 million units ordered, or 32 items per second, worldwide. Additionally, even 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.


“We are extremely grateful to our customers,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the globe, we wish everyone happy holidays and best wishes for the coming year.”

Worldwide 2004 Holiday Facts

(includes www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.ca, and www.joyo.com).

-- On the peak day this season, 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.com shipped more than 99 percent of orders in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.

-- One of Amazon.com’s most remote shipments was the CD “The Mountain” (Del McCoury and Steve Earle) to Arctic Village, Alaska.

Amazon.com 2004 Holiday Facts (www.amazon.com only)

-- The “Holiday Shoppers” feature, which tracked the estimated number of visitors at Amazon.com during the prior 60 minutes, topped 700,000.

-- The Jewelry & Watches store sold more than one watch per minute since November 25.

-- The 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.

-- The last order placed on December 23rd in time for Christmas delivery contained “Is This It” by The Strokes and Yu-Gi-Oh!-The Movie. It was delivered to Sammamish, Washington on December 24th.

-- Compared with 2003, the standard shipping deadline was extended two days from December 18 to December 20.

Amazon.com’s hot holiday sellers November 25, 2004 through December 23, 2004 (based on units ordered)

-- In Home & Garden, kitchen items topped the list this year. The Black & Decker Lids Off Jar Opener, the Hamilton Beach Waffle Stix Waffle Maker and Riedel O Cabernet/Merlot Wine Tumblers were the three top sellers in the store. Cookware was also very popular, with classic pans from Calphalon, the Casa Moda “S’mores” Maker, and George Foreman grills being among the best sellers.

-- In Gourmet Food, Harry & David’s Christmas Classic Tower of Treats and the Ghirardelli Tower were again the most popular gift baskets. See’s Candies Gold Truffle Box and Godiva’s Holiday Gold Coin Bag were top selling chocolate gifts. Other popular items included the Kona Coffee Sampler and Cranberry Fool unique cranberry sauce.

-- In Sports & Outdoors, flashlights, poker chips and exercise equipment (including full-sized treadmills, home gyms, yoga and pilates gear, and the Ab Lounge 2) were the hottest items this season. The Flybar 1200, a high-tech pogo stick sold exclusively on Amazon.com, was so popular that Amazon.com fulfillment centers scrambled to keep up with customer demand. Other areas that did exceedingly well were golf, fan gear for every sport, and, surprisingly, SCUBA and snorkel gear.

-- Top sellers in Computer & Video Games were Halo 2 (Xbox), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2) and the Incredibles (Gameboy Advance). The Sims 2 and Half-Life 2 were the top selling games for PCs.

-- In Health & Personal Care, the ever popular nose hair groomers, shavers and electric toothbrushes were the top sellers. A surprising top seller this holiday was the new Philips HeartStart Home Defibrillator, which is the first defibrillator cleared for over-the-counter sale.

-- Tools & Hardware top sellers were the Black & Decker 25’ Auto Tape Measure, the Strait-Line Intersect Laser Level, the Porter-Cable Finish & Brad Nailer Combo Kit, and the Toro Electric Power Shovel Plus.

-- 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. This holiday season also proved that there is strength in sequels as “Shrek 2,” “Spider-Man 2,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” all finished in the top 10.

-- In Beauty, the most popular products this season were samplers from Yves Rocher and Caswell Massey, Curious Britney Spears perfume, and Philosophy’s The Gingerbread House. LUSH Bath Bombs have also been a regular favorite.

-- The top selling electronics products this year 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 in earrings, pendants and bracelets. Other top selling jewelry items include 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.

-- In apparel, comfort was king. The Ugg(R) Australia Classic Short Boot, Land’s End Women’s Regular Flex Fleece Clog Slippers, and the Carole Hochman Fleece Pajama Set were all hot sellers.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics and office, toys and baby, and home and garden.

Amazon.com and its affiliates operate seven Web sites: www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.ca, and www.joyo.com.

As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward Looking Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to potential future losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions, and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, international expansion, consumer trends, inventory, limited operating history, government regulation and taxation, fraud, and new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and all subsequent filings.



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