Amazon ships 2m parcels a day in record Christmas

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"When times are tough people still like to spoil themselves," he said. "At the same time they like to seek out value."

During the Christmas peak Amazon was shipping out two million parcels a day from its four British warehouses.

Mr McBride said there had only been "minor disruption" from the bad weather and postal strike. He reported strong growth in third-party business where Amazon handles the internal business of many retailers, including Debenhams, Hamleys and La Senza.

International sales, which include Germany, Japan, France and China as well as Britain, rose by 49 per cent to $4.56 billion (£2.82 billion), catching North America where sales rose 36 per cent to $4.96 billion.

Mr McBride said the British launch of the Kindle digital book reader had gone well and that worldwide there were more than two million in use. Globally, in cases where books and downloads are available, Amazon handled six digital downloads for every 10 physical book sales.

The group's profits rose 71 per cent in the fourth quarter to $384 million and it forecast a higher than expected 43 per cent rise in current quarter sales.