Web bookseller, Amazon, claims its decision to lower prices is beginning to pay dividends.

"We've lowered prices five times over the last 15 months, and simply put, it's working," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

Bezon was speaking yesterday as Amazon published its Q3 results.

The etailer reported that net sales were up a third to $851m, compared with $639m in the third quarter 2001, exceeding the company's own estimates.

And while sales were up, losses were also heading south falling sharply to $35m compared with a deficit of $170m in Q3 in 2001.

Part of Amazon's improvement was due to an improvement in performance from its international operations.

Sales in the UK, Germany, France and Japan grew a whopping 90 per cent to $264m.

Looking ahead, sales during the traditionally busy Q4 are expected to increase by up to 28 per cent to between $1.325bn and $1.425bn.

And Amazon reckons sales will increase still further next year by around 10 per cent. ®