In case anyone was wondering how some of the heavyweights in online retail fared this holiday season, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) amazed investors today by stating that it set a new one-day record for orders. For anyone who has been worried about a troubled retail environment this holiday season, Amazon showed that there's definitely strength in bargains, as well as in appealing to those who shun malls.
Despite an early glitch that might have made some people wonder if Amazon was gearing up for a fall, the rest of the season apparently went off without a hitch. Amazon said it set a record of 2.8 million items ordered, or 32 items per second, with 99% of orders in time for holiday deadlines.
Amazon's press announcement held a little magic for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), too (Fool contributor Tim Beyers described Amazon's usefulness for knowing what's hot and what's not and whether top-selling items are created by publicly traded companies or not). That's because Apple's iPod dominated Amazon's "hot sellers" electronics category, with its 20GB iPod, its 4GB Silver Mini iPod, and iTunes gift cards making the list of five top requests in the category. And of course, we recently learned that sales for Amazon's electronics category had surpassed those for books for the first time ever.
Of course, Amazon's record-breaking day likely bodes well for all the other big-name online retailers that are likely benefiting from shoppers' increased aversion to crowded malls, as names such as eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Blue Nile (Nasaq: NILE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) likely rang up healthy sales as well.
In addition, it explains both Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ:YHOO) eagerness to pull in users through shopping or shopping-related search features.
Today's news spurred investors to bid Amazon shares up nearly 8% on my last check. Yikes. The stock is trading at 43 times forward earnings. Although today's word certainly is good news, and implies better tidings down the road, shares of Amazon certainly aren't on any holiday discount today; unlike most thrifty after-Christmas shoppers, it seems to me that investors are paying a steep price for one of the best.
Amazon.com and eBay are both Motley Fool Stock Advisor picks. Blue Nile and Overstock.com are both Motley Fool Rule Breakers picks. Check out our suite of newsletters if you're looking for great ideas in stocks. Or, if you want to talk to other Foolish investors about Amazon.com, pay a visit to our Amazon.com discussion board.
Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned, although she has been known to spend too much money on Amazon.
