4 ms·

Amazon says 2008 holiday season was 'best ever'

37 points by gibsonf1 18y ago

dustineichler 18y ago
I'm a big believer that innovation wins, but that should go without saying. Good for them, good for us all.
chris11 18y ago
I'm not surprised. Amazon is usually cheaper than most brick and mortar stores. I ended up purchasing a couple books last minute for Christmas, and when I got home, I realized that Borders was charging nearly 50% more than amazon charged. Plus I had to deal with the traffic, crowded store, and bad customer service.
- pmorici 18y ago
  Plus they have nearly neutralized the traditional stores only real advantage ie: "I need it now" with Amazon Prime which offers free 2 day shipping and next day shipping for a couple bucks.
  - potatolicious 18y ago
    Up here in Vancouver, Canada, the snow has been coming down much harder than most years, and a lot of shoppers are cooped up in their houses. Amazon and other online stores are making a killing off the bad weather.
    - smhinsey 18y ago
      Are deliveries still getting through despite the weather or something? I've heard this a couple of times and it confuses me. It seems like I'd be more likely to use Amazon if the weather was beautiful because I'd rather not spend those days in the mall, since they're open 24 hours, but the whole thing hinges on fedex driving where you can't, which is weird to me. Which is not to say that I question the premise of your comment, it's just that it seems like a bit of a nonsequitor in that while they correlate, it's not clear to me that there is a causal relationship at play, but then again, I've done no research, but as people have pointed out elsewhere, they are cheaper, and it seems that they are probably succeeding for the same reason Wal-Mart is.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
      - potatolicious 18y ago
        They are actually - days like these the delivery guys don't get paid enough :) It's not as if the roads are sealed or anything, but there's enough snow out there that most people are ill-equipped and ill-trained to deal with it. Cars are sliding off the roads because of lack of snow tires, and people are getting beached up all over the place. Not a pretty sight. But a good driver with snow tires/chains is not altogether too handicapped.
lionheart 18y ago
This is the kind of thing that gives me hope that, even with this horrible economy, web-based start ups like the one I'm working on can still succeed.
- patio11 18y ago
  They can still succeed. I sell things to people for money. This year for December, I sold 50% more things to 50% more people for 50% more money, as compared to last year. No comment the viability of business models which do not including selling things to people for money. (Except that I'm getting my ads cheaper than last year, which is great news for me but must be bad news for some poor bugger depending on his AdSense checks...)
- fallentimes 18y ago
  I work at a web based startup as well and it was our best month ever. Don't believe the media hype and outrage for the sake of outrage; they're just trying to sell something not enough people want. There's still many opportunities and ways to make money.
- DenisM 18y ago
  I work on iPhone software and our sales were a lot worse than November (40% less). Couple others reported the same. I guess people are buying more gifts than for themselves, and app store has no notion of a gift yet. There was nothing there last year, so can't compare.
  - quantumhobbit 18y ago
    Hopefully there will be a post-Christmas bump as people cash in on iTunes gift cards.
    - DenisM 18y ago
      Yep. iTunes connect is down for maintenance so I can't even tell what's going on until tomorrow or so.
rokhayakebe 18y ago
This is mostly due to facts outside of Amazon behavior: - Increase in Internet penetration. - Consumers being more open to entering their credit card number online. - Increase in number of price comparison startups.
vaksel 18y ago
Not surprising. People want to save money nowadays, so they flock to the internet to find deals. Amazon is more or less for the lazy, those who don't want to look at 100 web stores, but still want a decent deal.
- pmorici 18y ago
  or people who have better things to do with their time than look at 100 web stores. Not to mention Amazon Prime members get free two day shipping and heavily discounted next day shipping so you could wait until Dec. 23 to do all of your shopping and have all your items by the 24th. I don't know any other web store that can give you that deal even if they are a couple bucks cheaper on some things.
  - sachinag 18y ago
    I think Zappos also had free overnight shipping this Christmas - they hit $1B in sales and are almost always more expensive than Amazon. Good customer service pays off.
puzzle-out 18y ago
The question is: would Amazon's turnover had been even higher without the downturn? At the very least, the rebirth of the discriminate, 'rational' buyer is great news for well-run etailers, who can fully leverage the industy's low overhead base.
seiji 18y ago
Weren't people saying AWS components would go down during the holidays because it was actually Amazon's extra holiday capacity?
- wheels 18y ago
  That may have been Amazon's way of running an experiment in the off season to see if it was a viable service and beefing it up once they saw it catching on.
ComputerGuru 18y ago
The irony: CNN reports 2008 is one of the worst holiday seasons ever for retailers across America: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/26/news/economy/holidaysales_finalnumbers/index.htm?postversion=2008122611 http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/26/news/economy/holidaysales_fi...
- anewaccountname 18y ago
  This was a record year: up 2% over last year, which itself was a record year. It is just that "2%" is a smaller increase than ever before. That is actually surprising; last year everyone had huge, fake, bubble-wealth; this year they don't. And they still spent more.
  - ojbyrne 18y ago
    If you read the article, that 2.2% in the table was an early estimate - actual results are being described as down significantly (i.e. negative year over year).
    - anewaccountname 18y ago
      Good catch; nonetheless, they aren't saying we're spending less on Christmas presents than we did in say, 1950.
      - ojbyrne 18y ago
        There's going to be some growth due to population increases.
brandnewlow 18y ago
Slate calls BS on the whole thing: http://www.slate.com/id/2207537/ http://www.slate.com/id/2207537/

37 points by gibsonf1 18y ago

I'm a big believer that innovation wins, but that should go without saying. Good for them, good for us all.

I'm not surprised. Amazon is usually cheaper than most brick and mortar stores. I ended up purchasing a couple books last minute for Christmas, and when I got home, I realized that Borders was charging nearly 50% more than amazon charged. Plus I had to deal with the traffic, crowded store, and bad customer service.

pmorici 18y ago
Plus they have nearly neutralized the traditional stores only real advantage ie: "I need it now" with Amazon Prime which offers free 2 day shipping and next day shipping for a couple bucks.
- potatolicious 18y ago
  Up here in Vancouver, Canada, the snow has been coming down much harder than most years, and a lot of shoppers are cooped up in their houses. Amazon and other online stores are making a killing off the bad weather.
  - smhinsey 18y ago
    Are deliveries still getting through despite the weather or something? I've heard this a couple of times and it confuses me. It seems like I'd be more likely to use Amazon if the weather was beautiful because I'd rather not spend those days in the mall, since they're open 24 hours, but the whole thing hinges on fedex driving where you can't, which is weird to me. Which is not to say that I question the premise of your comment, it's just that it seems like a bit of a nonsequitor in that while they correlate, it's not clear to me that there is a causal relationship at play, but then again, I've done no research, but as people have pointed out elsewhere, they are cheaper, and it seems that they are probably succeeding for the same reason Wal-Mart is.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
    - potatolicious 18y ago
      They are actually - days like these the delivery guys don't get paid enough :) It's not as if the roads are sealed or anything, but there's enough snow out there that most people are ill-equipped and ill-trained to deal with it. Cars are sliding off the roads because of lack of snow tires, and people are getting beached up all over the place. Not a pretty sight. But a good driver with snow tires/chains is not altogether too handicapped.

lionheart 18y ago

This is the kind of thing that gives me hope that, even with this horrible economy, web-based start ups like the one I'm working on can still succeed.

patio11 18y ago
They can still succeed. I sell things to people for money. This year for December, I sold 50% more things to 50% more people for 50% more money, as compared to last year. No comment the viability of business models which do not including selling things to people for money. (Except that I'm getting my ads cheaper than last year, which is great news for me but must be bad news for some poor bugger depending on his AdSense checks...)
fallentimes 18y ago
I work at a web based startup as well and it was our best month ever. Don't believe the media hype and outrage for the sake of outrage; they're just trying to sell something not enough people want. There's still many opportunities and ways to make money.
DenisM 18y ago
I work on iPhone software and our sales were a lot worse than November (40% less). Couple others reported the same. I guess people are buying more gifts than for themselves, and app store has no notion of a gift yet. There was nothing there last year, so can't compare.
- quantumhobbit 18y ago
  Hopefully there will be a post-Christmas bump as people cash in on iTunes gift cards.
  - DenisM 18y ago
    Yep. iTunes connect is down for maintenance so I can't even tell what's going on until tomorrow or so.

rokhayakebe 18y ago

This is mostly due to facts outside of Amazon behavior: - Increase in Internet penetration. - Consumers being more open to entering their credit card number online. - Increase in number of price comparison startups.

vaksel 18y ago

Not surprising. People want to save money nowadays, so they flock to the internet to find deals. Amazon is more or less for the lazy, those who don't want to look at 100 web stores, but still want a decent deal.

pmorici 18y ago
or people who have better things to do with their time than look at 100 web stores. Not to mention Amazon Prime members get free two day shipping and heavily discounted next day shipping so you could wait until Dec. 23 to do all of your shopping and have all your items by the 24th. I don't know any other web store that can give you that deal even if they are a couple bucks cheaper on some things.
- sachinag 18y ago
  I think Zappos also had free overnight shipping this Christmas - they hit $1B in sales and are almost always more expensive than Amazon. Good customer service pays off.

puzzle-out 18y ago

The question is: would Amazon's turnover had been even higher without the downturn? At the very least, the rebirth of the discriminate, 'rational' buyer is great news for well-run etailers, who can fully leverage the industy's low overhead base.

seiji 18y ago

Weren't people saying AWS components would go down during the holidays because it was actually Amazon's extra holiday capacity?

wheels 18y ago
That may have been Amazon's way of running an experiment in the off season to see if it was a viable service and beefing it up once they saw it catching on.

ComputerGuru 18y ago

The irony: CNN reports 2008 is one of the worst holiday seasons ever for retailers across America: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/26/news/economy/holidaysales_finalnumbers/index.htm?postversion=2008122611 http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/26/news/economy/holidaysales_fi...

anewaccountname 18y ago
This was a record year: up 2% over last year, which itself was a record year. It is just that "2%" is a smaller increase than ever before. That is actually surprising; last year everyone had huge, fake, bubble-wealth; this year they don't. And they still spent more.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  If you read the article, that 2.2% in the table was an early estimate - actual results are being described as down significantly (i.e. negative year over year).
  - anewaccountname 18y ago
    Good catch; nonetheless, they aren't saying we're spending less on Christmas presents than we did in say, 1950.
    - ojbyrne 18y ago
      There's going to be some growth due to population increases.

brandnewlow 18y ago

Slate calls BS on the whole thing: http://www.slate.com/id/2207537/ http://www.slate.com/id/2207537/