Image source: Amazon.com.
Amazon.com (AMZN 3.89%) was rewarded with an overwhelming response to its annual Prime Day sales extravaganza this year. The company took the sale global this year and expanded the amount of time allotted for the sale, beating last year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined and generating 60% more sales this year than last.
So, what were shoppers buying up like there was no tomorrow? Business Insider compiled a list of the top items its readers purchased on Prime Day, and they pretty closely matched the items people around the world were purchasing, too.
Image source: Amazon.com.
1. Amazon Echo
Thanks to some steep discounting, sales of Amazon's own Alexa-enabled, voice-activated smart speaker soared. Amazon sold twice as many Echo devices in the U.S. compared with last year's Prime Day, and it sold more than three times as many worldwide. This should only help to cement the Echo's dominance of Wi-Fi speakers.
Image source: Amazon.com.
2. Amazon Echo Dot
By Amazon's own count, the Echo Dot was the most popular item among Prime members. This fun-sized version of the Echo was not just the best-selling Amazon device among this group, but the best-selling item by any manufacturer worldwide. That means the two best sellers on Prime Day were devices that can be used to buy even more Amazon products.
Image source: Instant Pot.
3. Instant Pot pressure cooker
Sure, there is a trend toward eating at home more and dining out less, but it's still a surprise that a pressure cooker was the best-selling item in the United States. This marks the second straight year in which the Instant Pot was a top seller on Prime Day -- in 2016 it sold 215,000 units on that one day -- boosting sales on Amazon, where it already derives 80% of its revenue.
Image source: Amazon.ca.
4. TechMatte MagGrip Air Vent Magnetic Universal Car Mount
According to Business Insider, the TechMatte universal car mount was the No. 1 seller last year, but it slipped to No. 4 this year because Amazon was slashing prices on its Echo products so steeply. Currently priced at just $7.99 and boasting a 4.5-star rating (with 8,500 reviews), this economical smartphone mount is immensely popular.
Image source: Amazon.com.
5. Fire HD tablet
Between the Fire 7 and the Fire HD 8, Amazon tablets were another huge seller, generating record sales for the devices. With discounts on the devices running as steep as 30% and 38%, respectively, it would've been hard for these not to sell by the thousands. But given that Amazon.com upgraded both tablets earlier this year yet still sells them pretty cheap, that discount all but guaranteed they would be winners.
Image source: Amazon.com.
6. SanDisk 32 GB Ultra Class Memory Card
When you can get up to 32 gigabytes of memory for less than $14, it's easy to see why these SanDisk camera memory cards were yet again a perennial favorite among Prime members. For a digital photographer, memory is like money -- you can't have too much.
Image source: Getty Images.
7. Sony XB950B1 Extra Bass Wireless Headphones with App Control
Although Sony's (SNE 0.60%) XB950B1 headphones didn't have the steepest discount applied to them -- the $129 headphones were going for around $98 -- the fact that they were a high-end device made their lower price irresistible regardless.
Image source: Getty Images.
8. Amazon Music Unlimited
Once again, an Amazon.com product became a top-seller thanks to a dramatically reduced price: A 30-day subscription to Amazon's Music Unlimited service proved too good a deal for shoppers to pass up. When rates for premium services from Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal can run $10 a month, testing out Amazon Music Unlimited for a buck seems like a no-brainer.
Image source: iRobot.
9. iRobot Roomba 652 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner
iRobot (IRBT +0.00%) set another Prime Day record with better-than-expected sales. In a press release sent out after the event, iRobot said: "We sold more than twice the volume sold on Prime Day in 2016, which was twice what the volume sold in 2015. The Roomba 652 was ranked No. 1 in robotic vacuum cleaners, No. 1 in all floor care, and No. 2 in all home and kitchen for 2017 Prime Day." There are going to be a lot of clean floors as a result.
Image source: Anker.
10. Anker Bluetooth SoundBuds
Anker's Bluetooth headphones were another item that didn't require steep discounts to make a big sales impact. The earbuds, which normally retail for $24, were discounted to only $21, but that didn't stop them from making the top 10 best sellers of Prime Day.
Image source: Amazon.com.
11. Kindle Paperwhite
Like the Fire tablets, Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite e-reader came with a cut-rate price tag: The most popular Kindle ever, usually priced at $120, could be had for just $90. Tech product review site The Wire Cutter calls the Wi-Fi-enabled Paperwhite "the best e-reader for most people thanks to stellar hardware, a massive library that frequently offers better prices than others, and a slew of services unavailable on other readers."
Image source: Amazon.com.
12. Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote
And, of course, Amazon rounded out the top dozen sales items from Prime Day with another one of its own products, the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, which last year was the global best seller. That also means that of the top 12 items sold on Prime Day this year, half of them were Amazon products.
