Amazon Claims 2008 Holidays Best Ever

Recession? What recession? Online retailer Amazon.com is claiming the 2008 holiday buying season has been its best ever...but didn't offer any numbers.

The world might be in the grips of an economic melt-down—and the United States in an official recession—but online retailer Amazon.com is proclaiming the 2008 holiday buying season its best ever…even if it’s not releasing any sales figures just yet.

Amazon claims more than 6.3 million items were ordered from its Web sites on its peak shopping day of December 15, 2008, which translates to almost 73 items per second. On its peak shipping day, Amazon pushed 5.6 million items out the door. The company claims it managed to get more than 99 percent of orders out on time for holiday delivery deadlines.

"We are extremely grateful to our customers," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement. "We wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming year."

Amazon did not provide any financial tallies with its announcement; although the company is expected to have benefitted from an upsurge in online ordering brought on by inclement weather and winter storms impacting large portions of the United States, this holiday season has seen retailers slashing margins to bring in financially-strapped consumers. Amazon may have posted more transactions than in any of its previous holiday seasons, but it’s not clear whether that activity will translate to improved revenue.