Seattle -Amazon.com is offering free one-day shipping on
select items tomorrow through Dec. 21 in a bid to capture last-minute shoppers.
A
by the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch found that only 46.5 percent
of consumers had completed their holiday shopping by the second week of
December, and that 16.5 percent, or nearly 37 million people, hadn’t even
started.
Amazon said the limited-time promotion, which runs until at
11:59 p.m. PST on December 21, is good for thousands of top-selling items
including cameras, video games and laptops.
Separately, Amazon reported that its new Kindle Fire tablet
remains the e-tailer’s best-selling product for the 11th week in a row.
The company said the sales pace has accelerated with the
approach of the holidays, and that the $199 device has been selling at a rate
of well over 1 million per week for last three weeks.
“Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever
launched,” noted Amazon Kindle VP Dave Limp. “We’re building millions more to
meet the high demand.”
Amazon is expected to issue an over-the-air firmware update
within the next two weeks for Fire that will address certain performance and
multi-touch navigation issues.
