“This holiday season has been better than ever thanks to our customers and employees all around the world,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “On behalf of all Amazonians, we wish everyone the happiest of holidays and a fantastic 2020.”
Amazon’s worldwide and U.S.-only seasonal and year-end highlights are as follows.
AMAZON EMPLOYEES
This holiday season Amazon added more than 250,000 full and part-time seasonal roles across its global customer fulfillment network, with the company now employing 750,000 employees worldwide.
Nearly 19,000 employees worldwide across Amazon’s Operations team were promoted this year.
Amazon has 150 delivery stations in the United States that employ more than 90,000 Amazon Logistics associates.
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES
It was a record-breaking holiday season for independent third-party sellers – mostly small and medium-sized businesses – with worldwide unit sales seeing double-digit year-over-year growth, surpassing a billion items sold in Amazon’s Stores.
There are more than 800 Amazon Delivery Service Partners in the last-mile network, employing 75,000 drivers in the U.S.
Hundreds of thousands of customers in the U.S. visited the Small Business Gift Guide this holiday season, which featured gifts exclusively sold by small businesses.
PRIME MEMBERS, SHIPPING & DELIVERY
More people tried Prime this holiday season than any previous year – in fact, in one week alone, more than 5 million new customers started Prime free trials or began paid memberships worldwide.
In 2019, Amazon’s dedicated last-mile delivery network delivered over 3.5 billion customer packages globally.
This holiday season, the number of items that were delivered with Prime Free One-Day and Prime Free Same-Day Delivery nearly quadrupled compared to the same time period last holiday season, making this Amazon’s fastest holiday yet.
Over 100 million items sold by independent third-party sellers – mostly small and medium-sized businesses – were shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery over the holidays in the U.S.
In the U.S., the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K, Echo Show 5, Echo Auto, and Amazon Smart Plug were among the most popular items shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery during the holidays. Other popular items shipped with One-Day Delivery this holiday season include Melissa & Doug Scratch Art, and the Wyze Cam Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera.
Millions more items were ordered to an Amazon Hub location during the holiday season than ever before.
60 percent more customers shipped their holiday order to an Amazon pickup point this season compared to last year.
The top ten cities that used an Amazon Locker or Amazon Counter location this holiday were Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, San Jose, Berkeley (CA), Austin and Columbus.
The last delivery with Amazon’s ultra-fast delivery arrived on Christmas Eve at 11:59pm PT in Seattle, WA.
AMAZON DEVICES & SERVICES
It was a record holiday season for Amazon Devices and Alexa – customers worldwide purchased tens of millions of Amazon Devices.
Shoppers purchased millions more Amazon Devices compared to last holiday and the best-selling devices worldwide included Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Show 5.
Customers interacted with Alexa at record levels this holiday season – from finding recipes, to showing who’s at the front door, finding holiday TV shows and movies, turning on holiday lights and more.
Customers asked Alexa for recipes and cooking advice tens of millions of times this holiday season as Alexa helped make holiday feasts, cookies and cocktails. Some of the most popular recipes this holiday season included Thanksgiving Turkey, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Fluffy Mashed Potatoes.
Customers received hundreds of millions of doorbell and motion announcements via Alexa this holiday season from carolers to delivery drivers and holiday guests.
The most searched for holiday movie on Fire TV with Alexa was Home Alone, followed by Elf and The Grinch.
Alexa helped turn on holiday lights tens of millions of times.
Alexa helped customers connect with family and friends near and far tens of millions of times this holiday season, through video calling, messaging, and drop-in.
AMAZON BEST-SELLERS AND SEASONAL TRENDS
Toys, fashion, home and beauty items were popular departments to shop with more than half a billion total items ordered in Amazon’s Stores.
Toys and Games
The best-selling toys in the U.S. this holiday season included the L.O.L. Surprise! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series with Glitter Hair, Melissa & Doug Scratch Art Box of Rainbow Mini Notes, Nerf N Strike Elite Strongarm Toy Blaster (Amazon Exclusive), Hasbro Connect 4 Game, and Crayola Inspiration Art Case Coloring Set.
Building toys were a top trending toy category this holiday with best-sellers including the LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader’s Castle (Amazon Exclusive), LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle, and the LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V.
Home
Some of the best-selling home products in the U.S. included the Instant Pot Duo 80 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, iRobot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum, Linenspa 6-Inch Innerspring Twin Mattress, Keurig K-Classic Coffee Maker, Lodge Silicone Hot Handle Holder, COSORI Air Fryer, Brita Ultra Max Filtering Dispenser, National Tree Crestwood Spruce Garland, and Mr. Coffee Mug Warmer.
Fashion
Some of the most popular fashion brands customers ordered in Amazon’s Stores during the holidays include Carhartt, Champion, adidas and Amazon Essentials.
Millions of cold-weather accessories for the whole family were ordered during the holidays – from well-known brands such as Columbia, Pendleton and Calvin Klein to Amazon Brands such as Goodthreads and emerging brands such as State Cashmere.
Snow boots, cozy cardigans and knit beanies were a few of customers’ most loved items this holiday season, along with the customer favorite Orolay down Jacket, better known as the “Amazon Coat.”
Customers loved giving their winter wardrobe an update with stylish, textured coats from favorite brands including, Alo Yoga and Daily Ritual, as well as bright puffers from Staples by the Drop and Amazon Essentials.
From leopard print headbands to cozy, spotted sweaters, animal prints were popular gifts to give and get, as seen in the Amazon Fashion holiday gift guides, curated by influencers including Pink Peonies’ Rachel Parcell and Something Navy’s Arielle Charnas.
Beauty
Some of the best-selling products from Amazon Beauty in the U.S. included HAUS LABORATORIES By Lady Gaga: GLAM ROOM PALETTE NO.1: FAME, Eyeshadow Palette, Philips Sonicare – Diamond Clean Classic Electronic Toothbrush, Crest 3D White Dental Whitening Kit, Mario Badescu Drying Lotion, and EltaMD UV Clear Facial Sunscreen Broad-Spectrum.
Electronics
Some of the best-selling electronics in the U.S. included Pokémon Sword for Nintendo Switch, Wyze Cam Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera, and Samsung 128GB MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card.
Pets
The best-selling pets products in the U.S. this season included SmartSticks Peanut Butter Chews, TEMPTATIONS Classic Cat Treats, and Furbo Dog Camera: Treat Tossing, Full HD Wifi Pet Camera.
Growth in top cat items outpaced growth for top dog items this holiday season in the U.S., and cat owners not only stocked up on litter, but also purchased treats for their furry companions.
Sports
The best-selling sports items in the U.S. this holiday season included Spalding NBC Street Outdoor Basketball, AmazonBasics Neoprene Dumbbell Pairs and Sets, AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, and Razor A Kick Scooter.
Customers in the U.S. continued to build their home gyms – this holiday season customers added technology to the mix with six of the top ten best-selling items coming from the Connected Fitness category.
Amazon Brands
The best-selling Amazon brands in the U.S. include AmazonBasics, 365 Everyday Value, Solimo, and AmazonEssentials.
Books
According to Amazon Charts, the most read and most sold book in the U.S. during this holiday season was The Guardians by John Grisham.
According to Amazon Charts, the most wished for books in the U.S. during this holiday season were A Warning by Anonymous, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling & Jim Kay, and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores
Best-selling items at Amazon Books stores over the holiday season included Dog Man: Fetch-22 by Dav Pilkey, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell, L.O.L. Surprise! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series, Echo Dot, and Amazon Smart Plug.
Best-selling items at Amazon 4-star stores over the holiday season included: Echo Dot, Amazon Smart Plug, Fire TV Stick 4K, Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer, L.O.L. Surprise! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series, and Wrecking Ball (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 14) by Jeff Kinney.
AMAZON GROCERY
The number of Prime members who tried grocery delivery for the first time this holiday season increased by more than 80 percent.
Prime members ordered more than double the number of grocery items this holiday season compared to last year.
Amazon delivered tens of millions grocery items from Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh this holiday season.
Prime members were committed to healthy grocery shopping throughout the holiday season. Best-selling items for grocery delivery included avocados, spinach, blueberries and pears, among other items.
Millions of Prime members enjoyed exclusive Prime savings at Whole Foods Market this holiday season.
Prime members saved tens of millions of dollars on exclusive Prime member deals and savings at Whole Foods Market this holiday season.
AMAZON ENTERTAINMENT
With billions of holiday streams globally, Amazon Music continues to be a leader in holiday listening.
Upon the mid-December release of Amazon Music’s mini-documentary about Mariah Carey’s groundbreaking hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” the song had held the number one spot on Amazon Music since Thanksgiving Day.
This season, customers cozied up with Prime Video – during the holidays Prime members watched more Amazon Originals than ever before.
Tens of millions of Prime customers streamed Amazon Original TV shows and movies over the holidays such as the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Expanse, The Report, The Aeronauts, and The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Special.
Chicago Fire has been heating things up on IMDb TV this holiday, on average, customers are streaming seven episodes of Chicago Fire per week for free since seasons 1-6 launched on the service in December.
This holiday season was record-breaking thanks to its customers all around the world – billions of items were ordered worldwide and tens of millions of Amazon Devices were purchased worldwide. Throughout the season, Amazon offered customers incredible deals every day and deeper discounts and more Deals of the Day than ever before during shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some of the best-selling products and brands this holiday season were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, Echo Show 5, L.O.L. Surprise! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series with Glitter Hair, iRobot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum, HAUS LABORATORIES, Carhartt, AmazonBasics, and Champion items. Popular departments customers shopped in Amazon’s Stores in the U.S. were toys, fashion, home and beauty with more than half a billion total items ordered.
Source: Amazon