Amazon records best holiday season ever

As online giant Amazon announced yesterday, the company “celebrated its biggest holiday” season this year, with more than four million people starting Prime free trials or beginning paid memberships, Amazon stated in a press release. However, no sales concrete sales figures were mentioned yet.

“Thank you to the millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees all around the world who made this holiday better than ever before. We look forward to another great year ahead,” commented Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.

The number 1 and number 2 top-selling products across all categories were Amazons Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote, respectively. In the US, UK, Germany and Japan, Fire TV continues to be the number 1 streaming media player family across all retailers. Items shipped with Free One-Day Shipping or Free Same-Day Delivery or Ultra-Fast Delivery with Prime Now more than doubled this holiday season. With more than one billion items ordered worldwide, small businesses and entrepreneurs had a record-breaking season as well.

“Since Day One we have obsessed over what we believe our customers care about – incredible deals and low prices, fast and free shipping, and a wide selection of top products – and we continue to provide all three, all the time,” explained Wilke. “We’re excited that people continued to join Prime this holiday, to take advantage of more fast and free shipping options plus new convenient delivery like Amazon Key, as well as early access to Lightning Deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, including Prime Originals and more.”

Across North America and Europe, Amazon associates at ten fulfillment centers picked, packed and shipped more than one million customer packages in a single day. The online retailer's peak day of customer fulfillment in 2017 was December 19.

In the fashion category, the best-selling items in the US this holiday season included the Asics Men's GEL Venture 5 running shoe, Levi's Men's 505 Regular Fit jeans, UGG Women's Classic Short II boot and the Alex and Ani Initial Expandable wire bangle bracelet. According to Amazon's holiday fun facts, customers purchased enough Calvin Klein products on Amazon.com during the holidays to give five items to every attendee at Coachella 2017.

According to Amazon, customers shopped from hundreds of millions of products, including a vast selection from small businesses and entrepreneurs; more than one billion items were ordered from them – and over just five days, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, nearly 140 million items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Photos: Amazon website