This 2016 holiday was the best-ever season for Amazon with devices including Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet and Amazon Echo topping the best-sellers list. Customers purchased and gifted a record-setting number of devices from the Amazon Echo family with sales up over 9x compared to last year’s holiday season and millions of Alexa devices sold worldwide this year.
“Echo and Echo Dot were the best-selling products across Amazon this year, and we’re thrilled that millions of new customers will be introduced to Alexa as a result. Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock. From turning on Christmas lights and playing holiday music to shopping for gifts and asking for help with cookie recipes, Alexa continues to get smarter every day,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer, Amazon.
“We couldn’t have made this holiday season possible for customers without the dedication and hard work of our customer service, transportation, and fulfillment associates along with our carrier partners – it’s amazing to see the teams come together to serve customers during the holidays. On behalf of Amazonians all around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming year.”
Holidays with Alexa:
Alexa helped mix hundreds of thousands of cocktails this holiday season with Tom Collins and Manhattans being the most requested drinks from skills like The Bartender, Mixologist and DrinkBoy.
Chocolate chip and sugar cookies were the favorite recipes from Alexa skills like Food Network and Allrecipes.
Home Alone and Elf were the most requested holiday movies with Alexa.
Alexa helped play millions of holiday songs this year, and the top songs were Jingle Bells (1999 – Remaster) by Frank Sinatra, All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey and Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano.
What was Alexa asked to cook? The most popular cooking tips requested on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were turkey, prime rib and chocolate chip cookies.
Who played the most holiday music with Alexa? Customers in Seattle, New York and Chicago asked “Alexa, play holiday music” more than any other city in the U.S.
Who turned on Christmas Lights the most with Alexa? Customers in Seattle, San Diego and New York asked, “Alexa, turn on Christmas lights” more than any other city in the U.S.
What games were the most requested with Alexa this holiday? Alexa entertained families with popular games like Jeopardy!, Twenty Questions and The Magic Door.
Amazon Prime:
More than one billion items shipped worldwide with Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon this holiday season.
More people around the world tried Prime this holiday season than any previous year.
The fastest Prime Now delivery on Christmas Eve took 13 minutes and was delivered at 9:05 p.m. to a Prime member in Redondo Beach, California. The order included a Tile Slim Item Finder and a Tile Mate Key Finder.
December 23, 2016 was the biggest day ever for Prime Now deliveries worldwide and members ordered 3x more items compared to last year with one and two hour delivery worldwide. Echo Dot, Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick and Oreo Cookies were some of the most popular items ordered that day in the U.S.
The last Prime Now order delivered in time for the holiday was delivered at 11:59 p.m. on December 24, 2016 to a Prime member in Irvine, California. The order included a Heated Mattress Pad, NyQuil and Afrin Nasal Spray.
Prime members in Dallas, Texas ordered more items with Prime Now than any other city in the U.S. this holiday season.
The last Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery order from Amazon.com that was delivered in time for Christmas was ordered at 10:23 a.m. on December 24, 2016. The order included Venum Contender Boxing Gloves, and was delivered to a Prime member in Richmond, Virginia at 2:42 p.m. – the same day.
Mobile Shopping:
More than 72 percent of Amazon customers worldwide shopped using a mobile device this holiday.
Shopping on the free Amazon mobile app grew by 56 percent this holiday, worldwide. On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide purchased about 46 electronics per second on a mobile device.
On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide purchased about 36 toys per second on a mobile device.
Amazon Operations:
December 19 was the peak worldwide shipping day this holiday season.
In the U.S., more than 200,000 full-time and seasonal associates made the record-breaking shipping season possible.
In the last two years, Amazon launched operations at over a dozen new facilities, many of which house robotic technology.
Amazon fulfillment centers in San Marcos, Texas and Kent, Washington, as well as two Polish fulfillment centers, in Poznan and Wroclaw, shipped more than one million items in a single day.
There are now 45,000 robotics units working alongside Amazon associates in more than 20 fulfillment centers.
Amazon also released data about digital media and holiday best sellers along with some “Holiday Fun Facts,” including this statistic: “On Cyber Monday 2016, Handmade at Amazon saw a 200 percent increase in sales versus Cyber Monday 2015.” Read the full release on the Amazon website (link follows).
Source: Amazon Press Release
