Weak pound boosts Amazon

Online retailer Amazon Uk today reported a surge in exports as consumers in continental Europe took advantage of the weak pound.

The trend, reported by UK managing director Brian McBride, emerged as Amazon UK's parent company posted a 24% rise in first quarter earnings to $177m (€134m).

The Seattle-based firm does not break out figures for the UK, but in the international division sales rose 15% to $2.31bn (€1.75bn) in the first three months of this year.

Top sellers in the UK included 'Mamma Mia! The Movie', which became Amazon.co.uk's biggest selling product of all-time, overtaking the seventh book in the Harry Potter series.

James Bond film 'Quantum of Solace' was the biggest seller of the quarter, while three books by Stephenie Meyer also appear in the top 10.

Mr McBride said sales growth was seen across its sales departments, including in music after downloads from its new MP3 store exceeded five million tracks. Amazon has sparked a price war in the sector by offering a number of best-selling albums for £3 (€3.32) as well as chart-topping tracks from 29p (32p).

Mr McBride added: "With the weakness of the pound we are seeing exports rising - a lot of people are buying products from Europe in the UK."

Amazon is celebrating its 10th year in the UK, where it launched its first overseas operation.

The business has four warehouses in Glasgow, Fife, Bedfordshire and most recently Swansea, where it opened its largest centre to date last year, at more than 800,000 square feet of storage space with some 1,000 staff.

It hired about 2,000 temporary workers over Christmas to help it cope with the peak selling season.

Today's results from the global company were much better than the decline analysts were expecting and indicate that the online retailer is faring well despite the ongoing recession.