2006: the year of the online Christmas

· Sales soar as Tesco.com and Amazon set records

Marianne Barriaux
Wednesday January 3, 2007
The Guardian

Shoppers seem to have spent more this Christmas than the doomsayers initially predicted, according to industry insiders, especially on the internet.
John Lewis saw its online sales soar 60% in December. Tesco.com broke all records with 1.3m shoppers buying food and presents on the site in the four weeks before Christmas - up 30% on 2005.

Amazon.com had its best holiday season, with more than 4m items worldwide ordered on December 11 - a record for a single day.