Amazon Sees Record Gains During Holiday Season

Amazon Prime membership grew with tens of millions of people beginning Prime free trials or paid memberships to receive free same-day, one-day or two-day shipping and free two-hour delivery via Prime Now, as well as exclusive shopping benefits.

“This season was our best yet, and we look forward to continuing to bring our customers what they want in ways most convenient for them in 2019,” says Jeff Wilke, chief executive officer, worldwide consumer, Amazon. “We are thrilled that in the U.S. alone, more than one billion items shipped for free this holiday with Prime. Thank you to our employees all around the world who are committed to bringing our customers the widest selection of products with low prices and fast and free delivery options throughout the holidays and all year long.”

Consumer trends include:

Amazon Devices & Alexa

• Shoppers purchased a million more Amazon devices compared to the same period last year, with Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, new Alexa Voice Remoter and Echo among the most popular.

• Consumers bought more Echo Dot Kids editions and Fire Kids Edition tablets than in the past.

• Home tech devices Ring and Blink topped previous years sales.

• Smart home products such as Amazon Smart Plug, Ring Video Doorbell 2, TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini Outlet and the iRobot Roomba 690 showed a new interest among consumers in making homes smarter in the new year.

• Users listened to more music this year and bought into new services such as Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and more.

• Alexa delivered eight times more reminders this holiday season compared to last season.

• Shoppers asked Alexa to turn on their holiday lights tens of millions of times this holiday season, with the No. 1 request being, “Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree.”

• Alexa helped mix hundreds of thousands of cocktails with eggnog and Moscow Mule being the most-requested drinks.

• Customers received millions of doorbell and motion announcements via Alexa this holiday season.

• Customers were in the festive spirit with Alexa Skill Blueprints; popular Blueprints this holiday season were The Holiday Story, Santa’s Letter and the Hallmark Holiday Greeting.

• The No. 1 holiday song that customers requested this holiday season was “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey.

• This holiday season, customers listened to more than one million holiday stories from Amazon Storytime on Alexa; the most popular holiday story was

Rapping Paper.

• Customers around the world asked Alexa, “How many days or sleeps until Christmas?” this holiday season; customers in the U.K. were the most excited, asking twice as much as customers in any other country.

• Customers used Alexa nearly twice as much on Fire TV devices this holiday season compared to the same period last year.

Amazon Best-Sellers and Seasonal Trends

Toys

• The best-performing toys in the U.S. and worldwide included the L.O.L. Surprise! Glam Glitter Series Doll with 7 Surprises, Nerf N-Strike Elite Strongarm Blaster, Melissa & Doug Scratch Art Rainbow Mini Notes with Wooden Stylus, Crayola Inspiration Art Case and the LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs Toy. Electronics

• Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, the Samsung Flat 65" 4K UHD 8 Series Smart LED TV, Apple iPad (Wi-Fi, 32GB) in Space Gray, Wemo Mini Smart Plug, Blue Yeti USB Microphone in Blackout, Wyze Cam 1080p HD Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera and the HP Sprocket Photo Paper were among the best-selling electronics.

Amazon Brands

• Some of the best-selling products from Amazon brands in the U.S. included Amazon Essentials Men’s Long-Sleeve Plaid Flannel Shirts, Goodthreads Men’s Short-Sleeve Crewneck Cotton T-Shirts, Daily Ritual Women’s Skinny Stretch Jeggings, the Stone & Beam Ceramic Geometric Table Lamp, Pinzon Faux Fur Throw Blankets, AmazonBasics Multipurpose Scissors, Amazon Elements Baby Wipes, Presto! Toilet Paper and Solimo Dark Roast Coffee K-Cup Pods.

Amazon Fashion

• One of the most-popular brands sold on Amazon during the holiday season was Carhartt, with over one million of its items ordered.

• Popular items bought with Prime Wardrobe during the holiday season were Amazon Essentials, Daily Ritual and Goodthreads, in addition to Calvin Klein, Champion and UGG.

• Athleisure was a holiday gifting trend this season with a wide assortment available on Amazon from brands including Champion, Alo Yoga, Nike, Adidas and Monrow.

• Amazon Essentials and Simple Joys by Carter's, along with Adidas, Columbia and Nike were among the most-selected fashion brands added to Amazon Wish Lists this holiday season.

Shipping & Delivery

• Customers continued to enjoy free two-hour delivery via Prime Now throughout the season and up to the last minute; the last Prime Now delivery on Christmas Eve was made at 11:30 p.m. in Berkeley, CA and included the LEGO Super Heroes Captain America Building Kit, a Hallmark card, Greek yogurt and shampoo.

• Five cities with the most Prime Now deliveries on Christmas Eve were San Francisco, Austin, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth and Springfield, VA.

• More than one billion items shipped for free in the U.S. this holiday season via Prime.

More Ways to Shop

Prime

• Tens of millions of people worldwide started Prime free trials or began paid memberships to take advantage of free same-day, one-day or two-day shipping, as well as free two-hour delivery with Prime Now. Alexa Shopping

• Customers’ use of Alexa for shopping more than tripled year over year.

Amazon.com in Spanish

• Customers who made Spanish their language of choice when shopping on Amazon.com this holiday season more than doubled year over year. Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses

• Small- and medium-sized businesses saw the number of items sold growing at a faster rate than retail.

• More than 50 percent of items sold in stores this holiday season came from medium and small businesses.

Amazon Physical Stores

• Customers enjoyed shopping at Amazon physical stores, including Amazon Books, the brand-new Amazon 4-star locations, Amazon Go and Whole Foods Market to find hot holiday products and edible favorites.

• The best-selling items at Amazon 4-star this holiday season were Amazon Smart Plug, all-new Echo Dot,

Becoming

by Michelle Obama, L.O.L. Surprise! Under Wraps Doll Series toys and the DASH Rapid Egg Cooker.

• The best-selling titles at Amazon Books this holiday season included

Becoming

by Michelle Obama,

Diary of a Wimpy Kid #13: Meltdown

by Jeff Kinney,

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari, Kindle Paperwhite, all-new Echo Dot and the L.O.L. Surprise! Bling Series toys.

• The best-selling item at Amazon Go this holiday season was Amazon Go Theo Dark Chocolate Bar, Cacao with Sea Salt, while the best-selling freshly prepared food was the chicken Bahn Mi sandwich.

• Some of the most popular holiday treats at Whole Foods Market were California Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, brown butter chocolate chip cookies and 365 Everyday Value traditional eggnog.

• Prime cashed in on member deals at Whole Foods Market.

• The best-selling Prime member deal at Whole Foods Market this season was turkeys.

• Customers chose to eat healthy between holiday meals; the best-selling items for Prime Now pick up at Whole Foods Market were organic Honeycrisp apples, boneless/skinless chicken breasts and Atlantic farm-raised salmon filets.

• The fastest grocery delivery this holiday season happened in St. Paul, Minnesota and was delivered in 12 minutes and 19 seconds, and contained Zevia soda and La Croix Sparkling Water.

• Cities that had the most grocery delivery via Prime Now and Whole Foods Market were Boston, Hoboken, NJ, and San Francisco.