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Play.com gets 1,000-order-a-minute Xmas
Thanks to Abba and Take That

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Friday 02 January 2009

Online entertainment retailer Play.com has revealed 24 per cent year-on-year growth in sales over the Christmas holiday 2008.

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The results buck the trend of muted growth over the busiest shopping days of the year among web retailers.

Play.com said peak trading came on 8 December, or Mega Monday as it has come to be known. The day saw volumes reaching 1,000 orders per minute, up from a peak of 700 orders a minute in Christmas 2007.

The biggest-selling items for the company in the DVD, music, books and games categories were Mamma Mia, Take That's The Circus, JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Call of Duty World at War, respectively.

Play.com co-founder and CEO Simon Perree said in a statement: "Despite concerns this year about the credit crunch and holding back on gift spending, Play.com has had a hugely successful Christmas with strong sales across all product categories."

Pundits have made conservative predictions about UK online retail growth for Christmas 2008. Deloitte put the figure at only 10 per cent year-on-year, while the IMRG CapGemini e-Retail Sales Index was a little more optimistic, putting growth for the last quarter of 2008 at 15 per cent year-on-year.