On-Line Web Shopping; Amazon Sets Records

Amazon.com discloses metrics around holiday sales... more than one million customers become new Prime members in third week of December : Co announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December. On Amazon's peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season.

• Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend was the best ever for Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers. 
• With thousands of Tech Advisors on call Christmas Day, Amazon beat its goal for Mayday button response time -- the avg response was 9 seconds (compare with Obamacare website)
• Amazon's digital media selection grew to more than 27 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games in 2013. 
• Prime Instant Video selection increased from 33K to more than 40K movies and TV episodes in 2013. Instant Video now includes more than 150K movies and TV episodes.
• Prime was so popular this holiday, that Amazon limited new Prime membership signups during peak periods to ensure service to current members was not impacted by the surge in new membership. 
• On Cyber Monday, customers ordered more than 36.8 million items worldwide, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second. 
• More than half of Amazon customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday. 

Holiday Best Sellers (Amazon.com only):

• Tablets: Kindle Fire HD; Kindle Fire HDX 7"; Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" 
• TVs: Samsung 32" Smart LED HTDV; Samsung 40" LED HDTV; Samsung 22" Slim LED HDTV 
• Laptops: Samsung Chromebook; ASUS Transformer Book; Acer Chromebook

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

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Speaking of Fees

From the print edition, Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, December 24, 2013, p B5.

The MoneyGram AccountNow Pre-Paid Visa Card (can you spell S-C-A-M?)

• $9.95 monthly fee
• $4.95 activation fee
• $2.50 fee for each ATM withdrawal
• $1.00 fee each time the balance is checked on line

The American Express Prepaid card

• no monthly fees
• no activation fee,
• one free ATM withdrawal each month