The 2012 holiday season set records for the Amazon.com, Inc. third-party marketplace operation, the online retailer announced today. Among the highlights the company emphasized: more than two million third-party sellers worldwide on Amazon experienced record holiday growth as unit gains solely from sellers in the United States increased more than 40% year-over-year.

Third-party sellers on Amazon.com shipped items from around the globe to customers in all 50 U.S. states and countries worldwide from Aruba to Zambia, the retailer said. In terms of products, marketplace participants contributed mighty feats, Amazon asserted, with an example being that third-party sellers moved enough tea lights to keep a votive illuminated continuously for over 200 years.

"We value the breadth and depth of selection that businesses selling on Amazon offer our more than 188 million active customers worldwide," said Peter Faricy, vp/Amazon Marketplace. "The entire Amazon Seller organization is focused on helping third-party businesses succeed and grow on Amazon. We do this by creating a dynamic marketplace platform that helps every seller deliver the best possible selection, service and prices to all Amazon customers."

Sellers around the world continue adopting the retailer’s fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon, the company related. With FBA, sellers of any scale can have Amazon ship their products directly to customers while offering Amazon Prime benefits, Free Super Saver Shipping, simple exporting to customers around the world, easy returns for orders placed on Amazon.com and professional customer service, it stated.