Amazon cheered investors earlier today, when it announced a 29 per cent increase in year-on-year sales.

The online retailer sold $12.83billion (£8.24billion) of goods in the three months to the end of June, up from $9.91billion (£6.36billion) over the same period in 2011.

But the company said the growth would have been higher, had the value of the dollar not dropped substantially during the 12-month period.

The company chose to use the announcement of its results to push its Prime membership package which, for $79, entitles subscribers to free, unlimited two-day shipping of all their orders.

There was also heavy emphasis on its on-demand services, such as LOVEFiLM and Prime instant video, demonstrating the importance the company is placing on these as it seeks to boost its revenue still further.

Broken down into regions, in the US and Canada, the company saw total sales grow by 36 per cent year-on-year, while in the territory including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and China, the growth was slower, at 22 per cent.

Electronics and other general merchandise sales grew by 38 per cent, to $8.16 billion (£5.24billion).