AMAZON, the online book, music and variety retailer, is preparing to buck the economic gloom with another record-breaking Christmas.

The company, which this year opened its biggest British distribution centre in Swansea, expects to sell more than 1m items on its busiest day this year - up from 900,000 last year.

Brian McBride, UK managing director of Amazon, told The Sunday Times: “Growth is slower but we are still expecting our biggest Christmas ever. In our view it is still growth, growth, growth.”

The company is hoping that cutting its free-delivery threshold from orders over £15 to £5 will boost sales. McBride said internet sales were still expanding because more people had access to computers with broadband connections. He added that in a tougher economic climate more people shopped around to find the cheapest price and the internet was a good place to do that.

Despite the group’s optimism sales growth is still expected to be its slowest since the dotcom crash in 2000-2.

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