Amazon Steps Up for the Holiday Season

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Places To Shop

Published on Sunday, 01 December 2013 17:41

Written by Elaine Ing

What started out in 1995 as an online bookstore has grown into a behemoth covering every facet of our daily lives.  Today, as it nears its 20th anniversary, it’s the Everything Store, a company with around $75 billion in annual revenue and a $140 billion market value. As the world's largest online retailer, it has 96 "fulfillment centers" worldwide that measure 1.2 million square foot (the size of more than 20 football fields) each, to meet the needs of its 225 million customers around the world. Its diversified range covers everything that you can possibly conceive - from electronics to fashion, furniture, apparel, fashion accessories, home goods, and food.  
 
Not only does Amazon has the breadth in terms of merchandise, but for the first time ever, Amazon is prepared to satisfy the need for on-time delivery.  Since November, Amazon, in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, has been offering Sunday delivery service (at no additional charge). The combination of the two helped boost its bottom line with worldwide orders of 37 million items on Cyber Monday (this comes out to record-breaking sales of 426 items every second), its busiest shopping day of the year, representing a robust increase of 39 percent higher than figures from last year’s peak day.

At Amazon's 2013 Holiday Preview, we got a glimpse of what Amazon had to offer and we can certainly see why Amazon continues to grow in every way. With stations set up in its different categories, we had already started to mentally make wish lists.

Amazon is your one-stop shopping destination for everyone on your list this holiday season. In addition to economical stocking stuffers, Amazon also has unique and once-in-a-lifetime gifts ideas:  extravagant luxury gifts including fine art items like original artwork, top of the line electronics, amazing kids toys and more.

Electronics:
Make your life easier with Amazon's Holiday Electronics Gift Finder - a curated list of the latest, top rated, and most coveted technology items. Amazon covers the full range in computers, tablets, TVs, home audio, mobile electronics, wireless, camera, office, musical instruments, video games, software and so much more. Technology remains high on most wish lists.  For example, its Kindle tablet (with price ranges from $69-$399) continues to be extremely popular with more units sold during the holiday season than in previous years.  The recently launched Xbox One and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles were sold at rate of more than 1,000 units every minute during the peak period of their sales.

Toys & Baby:
A huge array of award-winning, as well as educational toys for babies to kids.

Sports & Outdoors:
For the sports buffs to the athletes and outdoor lovers, Amazon offers equipment from bikes, athletic gear and clothes, and camping gear.

Tools & Home Improvement:
Amazon has everything available for those who like the hands-on approach to home improvement, home repair and home renovation.

Home & Pets:
Shop for appliances, furniture, bedding and bath products, grills, vacuums, and other home essentials

Books:
Despite the popularity of e-readers, there are those who still like the look and feel of traditional books.  

Kitchen, Grocery & Gourmet Food:
Everything from appliances, bakeware, stocking stuffers, juicers, blenders, and gift sets from global epicurean.

Health & Beauty:
A one-convenient location for shoppers to discover new brands, find the latest in beauty trends and tips, and stock up on trusted favorites. This department includes well known beauty brands (Lorac, Paula Dorf, StriVectin, Dr. Dennis Gross) and the recently launched Amazon Luxury Beauty Store - featuring a curated selection of thousands of products across makeup, skin care, hair care, men’s grooming and fragrance from sought-after, high-end brands including Burberry, Dr. Brandt, Jack Black, Deborah Lippmann, NARS, and more.

Amazon Fashion:
While Amazon has sold apparel, shoes and accessories for years, the company has intensified its focus on contemporary and high-end brands since 2012, wooing fashionistas with a treasure trove of well-known designers such as DVF, Zac Posen, Elizabeth and James, Hugo Boss, just to name a few.  Amazon’s initial forays into the high end (which includes opening a massive photo and video studio to shoot on-model images) have helped raise apparel sales by triple digits.

Amazon Wine:
A vast wine-country selection from wineries throughout the US and sorted by regional, varietal, professional rating and more.  The broad selection of wines enables customers to easily find and buy directly from their favorite wineries.
 
Go Digital:
Includes Amazon Instant Video: a digital video streaming and download service, Amazon mp3: one of the world's largest DRM-free digital music store with a library of more than 24 million songs, Amazon Cloud Player for playing or downloading music from the cloud with Amazon Cloud Player and Amazon Appstore for Android.

DIY Holiday Gifts:
What's better than a home-made gift to show how much you care?  The Arts, Crafts and Sewing Store is your online resource for materials, tools and supplies.  Popular brands such as Martha Stewart Crafts, Brother, Fiskars and dozens more offer a variety of handicraft material and tools.

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