I just cannot shake the feeling that Amazon is going to one day soon, be a real force watch out for. Anyway, the BBC reports that the major online retailer managed to shoot past a record Christmas year with their holiday sales.

At its height, the company said it had been logging orders for 32 items per second worldwide.

The company attributed much of the increased trade to rampant demand for Apple computers and iPod music players.

The news sent Amazon’s shares up by almost 9%, as traders seized on good news on an otherwise lacklustre day’s trading on Wall Street.

Online good, offline bad

This Christmas is thought to have been more generally a strong one for online retailers.

In November and December, sales are thought to have risen 28% year on year to more than $15.5bn (£8bn), excluding auctions and travel sales, according to research firm ComScore.