Play.com Celebrates Record Christmas Sales

Officials from UK based online retailer Play.com have announced that the company has enjoyed its best ever Christmas sales period to date, with a 21 percent rise in annual sales to £340 million ($672m) and a fourth quarter rise of 24 percent. Exact figures were not disclosed for the fourth quarter but they were described as the best in the company’s ten year history. Play.com has recently expanded its business with a North American website and a move into clothing, electronics, mobile phones and toy sales. The company also operates online trading site PlayTrade, to help swap unwanted Christmas presents. However, the company is best known for DVD and video games sales, with the PlayStation 3 noted as the website’s bestselling video games item during the fourth quarter, followed by Assassin’s Creed and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The stock limited Wii was the most searched for item on the website. Although the company was still putting items on sale on December 19th, with reported strong sales on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the peak trading day was Monday December 3rd, when an average of 700 orders were processed every minute – up from 422 the previous year. “Despite the worry about tightening of the purse strings and the credit crunch, Christmas on Play.com has been a big success and sales have been outstanding,” said CEO Simon Perree. “We have worked hard all year to make sure we could cope with the Christmas peak, and are especially pleased to achieve the highest customer satisfaction rating out of all online retailers over the Christmas period.”