Seasonal Gift Store Includes Electronics, Games, Toys, and More

SEATTLE, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- On the eve of what is expected to be the Internet's biggest holiday shopping season ever, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today opened two new stores--its much-anticipated video store and a holiday gift store that, in addition to books, videos, and music, includes personal electronics, games, gadgets, and toys for all ages.

The gift store markedly expands the online shopping opportunities available to millions of shoppers by allowing them to meet more of their holiday gift needs online-the fast, easy, hassle-free alternative to malls and stores.

The Amazon.com video store offers more than 60,000 theatrical and general-interest videos and more than 2,000 DVDs, all accompanied by Amazon.com's search features and unmatched editorial content, which allow shoppers to find exactly the video they want at prices up to 30% off.

"Together, these stores are exactly what our customers have told us they want," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "It's one destination where shoppers can meet all of their gift-giving needs at any time of day at one convenient location-their home or office computer. Don't fight the mob at the mall-go online. It's the easiest way to get gifts since Santa Claus."

Of the new video store, Bezos added, "We've heard it loud and clear from our customers: Buying videos today is a painful shopping experience. Whether it's the lack of selection, the absence of helpful information, or the high prices-it's worse than a bad movie. So we created a video store that has nearly seven times the selection of a typical video store, is rich in content, and is easy on the wallet."

The video store is Amazon.com's third product line, following its original line of books and then music CDs, which it added in June. Amazon.com is now the Internet's No. 1 book and No.1 CD retailer. The seasonal gift store will remain open through the holidays.

About the Amazon.com Holiday Gift Store
For the ultimate convenience, Amazon.com this year is introducing Gift-Click, the world's fastest and easiest way to give a gift. All you do is enter the gift recipient's e-mail address, and Amazon.com takes care of the rest. In less than 10 seconds, you can select, wrap, and send any one of millions of books, CDs, videos, and more. You don't even need the recipient's mailing address.

Gifts--wrapped with a personal message--can also be sent to your home for personal delivery or shipped directly by Amazon.com to the gift recipient.

Also for this holiday season, the Amazon.com gift store will offer a wider selection of gifts, including personal electronics, gadgets, games, and toys for all ages-in addition to Amazon.com's 3 million-plus book, music, and video titles.

Amazon.com has also added a new gift-recommendation service, Gift Matcher, that suggests gifts based on interests. And for the truly puzzled shopper, Amazon.com offers gift certificates by paper or e-mail to allow recipients to make their own selections. Instant e-mail gift certificates, sent within an hour, can solve the problem of last-minute shopping--even on Christmas Day.

About the Amazon.com Video Store
With virtually unlimited online shelf space, Amazon.com's video store has a selection nearly seven times larger than the typical physical-world video retailer, and this vast catalog of titles will continue to grow.

The Amazon.com video store stocks the Web's largest selection of titles available for shipping within 24 hours. Online shoppers will find browsing as simple as the click of a mouse, with 12 genres and literally hundreds of subcategories to choose from, including Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror & Suspense, Music & Musicals, and Science Fiction & Fantasy.

In addition, Amazon.com offers a huge selection of special-interest and television and documentary videos, as well as a DVD "store within a store."

Amazon.com provides a variety of resources to assist shoppers with their buying decisions, including up-to-date reviews from Leonard Maltin and from Amazon.com editors, whose previous experience includes writing for The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times. Shoppers can also count on customer reviews, personalized recommendations, and various gift ideas. Movie quotes and trivia from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the premiere online resource for movie lovers, are incorporated into the Amazon.com site.

About Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc., Earth's biggest book and music store (NASDAQ: AMZN), opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 with a mission to offer products that educate, inform, and inspire. Today, the Amazon.com store offers more than 3 million books, CDs, videos, DVDs, audio books, computer games, and other titles, plus easy-to-use search-and-locate features, secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, streamlined ordering through 1-Click(SM) technology, and direct shipping. Amazon.com operates two international bookstore Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service, and the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, the unpredictability of its future revenues, and risks associated with capacity constraints, management of growth, and new business opportunities. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1997, and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1998.

Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, PlanetAll, Internet Movie Database, Earth's Biggest Bookstore, and 1-Click are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.