As the festive season draws near, retailers across the UK are gearing up to handle the huge number of orders they are set to receive from customers nationwide. And, as the current king of shopping online, Amazon is under an especially significant amount of pressure to keep customers happy.

The Sun reports that it has hired hundreds of temp workers to join its existing team of employees at its Dunfermline-based distribution centre, which is the largest warehouse that it operates on British soil at the moment.

Covering an area which is equivalent to around 14 football pitches, this facility needs to be well organised, so that every single order is fulfilled quickly.

On Black Friday alone an average of 64 purchases were carried out on Amazon’s UK site each and every second, bringing the daily total to around 5.5 million. So the scale of the challenge that the firm and its staff face is easy to appreciate.

In addition to operating distribution centres like this in many other parts of the country, Amazon is also responsible for hiring extra delivery drivers for the Christmas period, many of whom are expected to deliver around 200 packages each day.

Critics have complained that delivery drivers in particular are working in substandard conditions, with claims that many are being paid at hourly rates that are lower than the minimum wage. Amazon has countered such accusations, although since it mainly relies on third party firms to provide seasonal contractors, it does not have direct control over the pay and conditions of these drivers.

There are hundreds of other reputable retailers offering good value products and safe, secure websites for consumers to use this year, so sticking with one outlet is not a necessity for anyone.