...Amazon Family launches free downloadable Night Guide to help parents get little ones to sleep...

Luxembourg – 27 November 2012: Amazon.co.uk today reveals a new trend – shop-turnal spending. Sales of baby products at Amazon.co.uk increased by 78 per cent year on year between midnight and 6am. Shop-turnal sales also increased significantly in the Health & Beauty, Clothing and Kindle Stores.

Topping the list of favourite items purchased in the Baby Store between midnight and 6am for the last 12 months are Lansinoh Disposable Nursing Pads - handy when breastfeeding at night; while at 5am, perhaps to combat early risers, the most ordered products are the Gro Clock Sleep Trainer and Gro Anywhere Blackout Blind.

A study authored by Amazon Family- the new programme to help save families time and money - found that parents browse the internet to help keep them occupied during sleepless nights, with nearly three quarters of parents (72%) missing out on up to four and a half hours sleep a night, leading to a third (33%) feeling continually exhausted.

To help parents manage sleepless nights, Amazon Family today launches the Amazon Family Night Guide. The free guide, created in partnership with some of the UK’s best known parent bloggers and family GP Dr Rosemary Leonard, includes a wealth of personal tips and experiences to help parents maximise their snooze time and minimise the emotional toll of sleepless nights. The guide is available as a free download at www.amazon.co.uk/family or as a free Kindle ebook.
Family expert Dr Rosemary Leonard commented on the study and Night Guide saying:

“As a parent, getting through the night in one piece can be hugely challenging, and with so much advice available it’s often difficult to know what’s right and what’s wrong. The study found that over half (51%) of parents like to seek advice from other parents, so with this in mind the Amazon Family Night Guide, created by parents for parents, is a great idea.

“Interestingly, the study revealed that mums are twice as likely (67%) to get up during the night than dads (31%), with cuddling (67%) and feeding (33%) appearing as the most favoured methods to help a child to sleep. We often assume that a baby is restless at night because he is hungry, but this data suggests that perhaps dad might like to try and settle baby more often, particularly if mum is breastfeeding as the ‘promise’ of breast milk can be a real distraction to little ones in the middle of the night!”

When sleep-deprived parents aren’t shopping through the night or settling their children, other activities undertaken to pass the hours include:

The bestsellers in the Baby Store at Amazon.co.uk between midnight and 6am for the last twelve months are:

Reading is the most popular activity during sleepless nights. The most downloaded Kindle books between midnight and 6am for the last twelve months are below and include bestselling trilogies, Fifty Shades and The Hunger Games.

Some of most popular products purchased across stores at Amazon.co.uk between midnight and 6am for the last twelve months are Bio-Oil Specialist Skincare Oil, Zumba Fitness Exercise Kits, Bananagrams, Adele CDs and Harry Potter DVDs.

“The Amazon Family Night Guide gives genuine and helpful advice from those who have ‘been there and done that’ so hopefully it will give parents the confidence, tips and advice they need to help make a difference - and as a fully paid up member of the ‘sleep deprived club’ I certainly agree with much of the advice within. The guide is just one small element of the Amazon Family programme which is designed to help families, be it with a little independent advice or to save time and money – whatever the time or need, day or night,” said Samantha Nash, mother of two young children and Family Manager at Amazon.co.uk Ltd.

Please visit Amazon Family for more information and to download the Amazon Family Night Guide.
-ENDS-

For further information, please contact Fiona Stones at Red on 0207 025 6428, email: Fiona.Stones@redconsultancy.com or call Suzi van der Mark at the Amazon press office on 0208 636 9280 or email suzi@amazon.co.uk .

Notes to Editors:

Amazon Family
-Amazon Family is a new programme designed to help families save time and money with hundreds of great offers on products for babies, children and parents.

-Customers can sign up to today at www.amazon.co.uk/family and gain access to discounts on a wide range of family products as well as the following:

• 20% off subscriptions to Huggies nappies
• Three months’ free subscription to Amazon Prime, giving unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items

• £10 off their first purchase over £50 in the Baby Store, www.amazon.co.uk/baby 
• At least £50 worth of exclusive offers every month, including a free Tommee Tippee nappy bin.

-Study data: 2,012 parents with children under five years of age were surveyed by Censuswide. Data completed 4th October 2012 - 12 October 2012.

-All items sold or fulfilled by Amazon.co.uk benefit from free Super Saver delivery in the UK. For those who want their product quickly, Amazon Prime provides free unlimited one-day delivery for an annual membership fee of £49. Details of these and other delivery options can be found at www.amazon.co.uk/delivery

About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk opened its virtual doors in October 1998 and strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavours to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.

Amazon.co.uk and other sellers offer millions of new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Baby, Books, Car & Motorbike, Clothing, DIY & Tools, DVD, Electronics & Photo, Grocery, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Jewellery, MP3, Music, Musical Instruments & DJ, Office, PC, Pet Supplies, Shoes, Software, Sports & Leisure, Toys & Games, Video Games and Watches.

Kindle Paperwhite is our most-advanced e-reader ever with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design.  The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD is our most-advanced tablet, with a stunning customised high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support and dual antennas/MIMO, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine. The all-new Kindle Fire features a faster processor for 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.

Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business.

Amazon.co.uk is a trading name for Amazon EU S.a.r.l, Amazon Services Europe S.a.r.l and Amazon Media EU S.a.r.l. All three are wholly owned subsidiaries of global online retailer Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), located in Seattle, Washington. Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings