More than four million consumers started a Prime free trial or paid membership in one week alone during the holiday season and order fulfillment peaks on Dec. 19.

Amazon.com Inc., No. 1 in the 2017 Internet Retailer Top 500, says global consumers shopped on the e-commerce site at “record levels” this holiday season. Amazon declined to provide Internet Retailer with any more details outside of its release.

Tuesday, Dec. 19, was the peak day for Amazon.com to fulfill holiday orders. Traditionally, sales on pure-play e-commerce sites slow as Christmas approaches, as retailers post shipping cut-off dates in order to guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve. This is not the case, however, for Amazon, as its Prime loyalty program guarantees delivery for millions of eligible products in two days, and in some cases and cities, one day or one hour for its Prime Now program.

Amazon’s expansive fulfillment network makes this possible, and the retailer increased its shipping and fulfillment network by more than 30% in terms of square feet this year.

Holiday shoppers clamored to sign up for Prime memberships this holiday season, according to Amazon. More than four million consumers started a Prime free trial or paid membership in one week alone during the holiday season, although Amazon did not specify which week.

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Mobile shoppers were a bright spot for the company this year. Globally, consumers shopping on the Amazon app increased nearly 70% this holiday season, Amazon says without providing further details. Plus, consumers ordered more than 1,400 electronic products per second on a mobile device this holiday season, Amazon says.

In November, Amazon added augmented reality to its iOS app, which is a feature that allows shoppers to view products to-scale on their smartphones in the context of their home. Out of the entire holiday season, consumers used the new AR feature the most on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving. The most popular item viewed in augmented reality throughout the holiday shopping season was a black chair with an ottoman, and furniture was one of the top-viewed categories in augmented reality.

Amazon devices raked in record sales this holiday season. The retailer sold tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices, such as the Amazon Echo or Dot, worldwide throughout the holiday season, which is “millions more” than last year. Alexa is Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant software.

Millions of Prime members shopped with their voice via Alexa this holiday season. The most popular items consumers purchased via voice were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and smart plug TP-Link Smart Plug Mini.

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Amazon sold millions of Echo Dots, and the small speaker was the No. 1 selling Amazon device and the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category on Amazon.com.

Amazon also reported:

  • It sold 2.4-times as many Fire Kids Edition Tablets compared with last holiday season.
  • Consumers bought more than 1 billion products from “small businesses and entrepreneurs” globally via Amazon this holiday season.
  • Over the Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday five-day period, consumers bought 140 million products from “small businesses and entrepreneurs” via Amazon.

 

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