Over 350,000 Harry Potter fans use Amazon to pre-order their copies

With over 350,000 pre-ordered copies at Amazon.com alone,  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the latest book in the Harry Potter series, has set an e-commerce record as well as making publishing history.

Pre-orders for the title at Amazon.com were eight times higher than the previous record, set for a John Grisham novel.

The fourth book in the series of seven by J.K.Rowling is the largest to date at 734 pages. 

To cope with demand for the book, Amazon.com shipped out the first 250,000 orders via Federal Express Saturday delivery at no extra charge to customers. Anticipating a huge demand, we tested Amazon's delivery services by placing a pre-order. Our copy arrived on time at 10.30am on Saturday. [I have to say it lives up to the quality of the first three. As a colleague puts it so eloquently, "it's like saying hello to old friends." Ed.]

The volume of pre-orders on Amazon.com alone clearly demonstrates the increasing role of the Internet in commerce today and underlines the fact that, for companies that can get the economics of the business model correct, the Internet still represents a tremendous opportunity to reach out to consumers.