Online shopping hit new highs in 2020, and Amazon has managed to deliver billions of items worldwide this holiday season in what is expected to be a record fiscal fourth quarter for the online retailer. The e-commerce giant published a new blog post revealing that it has shipped more than 1.500 billion toys, household products, personal care and beauty products, and electronics to its customers around the world. At the same time, third-party sales on Amazon have grown more than 50% year-over-year globally. One reason for this could be that the company has absorbed more than €5 billion in operating costs on behalf of independent vendors since the start of the pandemic. Amazon also recently announced that it will delay its decision to increase merchant fees until June next year, with fees for its Fulfillment by Amazon service on hold for now. Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's global consumer company, provided additional insight into the steps the company has taken to keep it operational during the pandemic in a blog post: “Amazonians around the world have really shown what it means focus on the customer and support our communities this year. When our customers, including frontline healthcare workers, needed more essential supplies, our teams and partners scrambled to stock and deliver these items. When it became clear that COVID-19 testing was going to be important, Amazonians across the company quickly set up our own testing capacity so we could help protect employees and deliver product to customers. And when customers needed a little more holiday cheer, millions of employees and partners worked together to deliver more holiday savings and gifts than ever before. We couldn't be prouder or more grateful for our teams around the world. "