Following last week's much anticipated addition of a music store, Amazon.co.uk, the UK's leading online store, today launches two new services - Amazon.co.uk Auctions and Amazon.co.uk zShops - further demonstrating the company's commitment to offering customers the best and broadest shopping opportunities on the Internet.

Amazon.co.uk customers will now have access to an additional half a million items from these new services. Now customers can not only find, discover and buy a greater selections of items in the store, but they also now have the chance to sell their own items via auctions or zShops to the biggest and most experienced base of Internet shoppers - 13 million worldwide.

With the launch of auctions and zShops on Amazon.co.uk and the German store Amazon.de, more than 13 million customers worldwide will be able to search across all three stores for a huge selection of items. UK customers will have access to all the internationally available goods appearing on Amazon.com and Amazon.de for the first time, bringing together buyers and sellers from around the globe.

Jeff Bezos - founder & CEO of Amazon explains: "Amazon.co.uk is no longer just the best place on the Internet for UK shoppers to discover books and music but it's now the ultimate destination for whatever they need. This is a key development for our European business as UK and overseas customers will now find whatever they want to buy - whether they're looking for new or rare books, music and memorabilia and collectible classics - Amazon.co.uk is the store of choice. We're also offering UK businesses the simplest shortcut to e-commerce by enabling them to sell their goods to a huge global audience on Amazon.co.uk. This is an opportunity that just can't be beaten."

Auctions
A 100-year-old letter written and signed by Winston Churchill during the Boer War goes under the hammer today along with a host of other "Best of British" items on offer to celebrate the launch of Amazon.co.uk auctions. There is also a receipt dated 1675 and signed by the infamous Colonel Thomas Blood who stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

Other unusual lots, in categories from art to videos, include a rare Guardsman teddy bear; a Beatles Help LP complete with tour programme and a photograph signed by Ringo Starr; a 1902 original edition of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories; a collector's edition Monopoly board game complete with gold-plated game pieces; Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Meaning of Life videos signed by Michael Palin and the latest Psion 7 handheld computer, not yet available in the shops.

Simple online registration and Bid-Click for easy bidding makes the process straightforward and convenient for buyers and sellers. Amazon.co.uk offers safety and security with the A-Z Guarantee, verification of all buyers and sellers and a seller rating system for safe, quick and hassle-free buying and selling. Listings on the UK and German sites will be priced in the local currency. As an added service the store has a currency converter that will calculate approximate equivalents in any other currency.

zShops
zShops offers businesses a unique and straightforward shortcut to e-commerce, empowering individuals or companies whatever their size, to market and sell their goods on the Amazon.co.uk site. Whether a small business, a specialist retailer or a major conglomerate, anyone can now offer a vast array of popular or hard-to-find items to a worldwide audience of 13 million registered and experienced Internet shoppers.

Jeff Bezos added: "This is all about making a better shopping experience for customers. Not only is it great for customers who have access to a better selection, but also extremely empowering for sellers who can now reach a large global market without the experience or the stresses of setting up an e-commerce business."

A sample of some of those items available today ranges from original old-fashioned hand-carved rocking horses, rare vinyl LPs, first edition and signed books, movie favourites on video to everyday items such as office furniture, car parts, golf clubs and computer networking peripherals. Anyone with anything interesting to offer for sale is welcome at zShops, whether they are a selling for a hobby or as an inventor or entrepreneur with their own small business.

For more information about Amazon.co.uk, please contact:
Rebekah Fitzgerald on 0181 237 4018
Rebecca Woods on 0181 237 4003

About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video and No. 1 book retailer, which opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995. Today, the Amazon.com store has expanded to offer free electronic greeting cards, online auctions and more than 4.7 million books, music-CDs, videos, DVDs, computer-games and other titles, plus secure credit-card payment, personalised recommendations and streamlined ordering through 1-Click. technology and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-Click.