Amazon (AMZN -0.16%) continued its momentum from Black Friday and Cyber Monday throughout the holiday, clocking in with its biggest holiday season ever. Including record shopping, record Prime membership trials, record sales of Amazon Devices, and more, the holiday season undoubtedly helped set the e-commerce giant up for an enormous fourth quarter.
Previewing a record fourth quarter, Amazon shared some insight into its big holiday shopping season in 2017. Here are some takeaways from the record period.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Echo Dot continued to be Amazon's best-selling product. In fact, the Echo Dot outsold all products from any manufacturer and in any category. Leading the charge, the Echo Dot helped Amazon achieve a record holiday for the entire family of Echo products.
2. Amazon's Fire TV Stick crushed it, too. The second best-selling product across all of Amazon was another Amazon device -- the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice remote. The company said sales of the Amazon Fire TV Sticks were more than double what they were during last year's holiday season.
3. Four million people signed up for a free trial of Prime in one week. Alongside its recent major expansion of Prime Free Same Day Delivery and Prime Free One-Day Shipping to 8,000 cities and towns (up from 5,000 previously), Amazon launched a 30-day free trial for Prime that included the same expanded shipping services that paying subscribers have access to. Apparently, it was a hit, drawing over 4 million Amazon Prime trials in a single week.
4. Tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices were sold. After its record Black Friday shopping weekend, Amazon said that there were already tens of millions of Amazon devices in the hands of customers. But now the e-commerce giant is saying it sold tens of millions of Alexa-enabled Amazon devices this holiday shopping season alone.
5. Parents love Fire Kids Edition Tablets. Sales of the Amazon tablet were up 2.4 times compared to the same time last year.
6. Amazon's fulfillment and shipping network grew significantly. Between last year and this year's holiday season, total square footage in Amazon's fulfillment and shipping network increased by 30%.
7. Mobile shopping skyrocketed. The number of customers who shopped on the Amazon App increased nearly 70% this holiday season compared to the same period last year.
Expect this momentum to continue
Despite how extraordinary this growth is, Amazon is still preparing for one more big shopping day before the year closes. On Dec. 29, customers will be able to save "up to 80% on over 5,000 apps, games, movies, eBooks, and more," Amazon said. Building on the momentum it saw last year with its new Digital Day holiday, Amazon said it will offer 40% more deals this year compared to last year.
Kindle Paperwhite. Image source: Amazon.com.
Notable deals will include three free books when customers sign up for an Audible trial, 60% off of Wonder Woman on Amazon video, a $10 Amazon.com credit for customers who subscribe to HBO Now through Amazon's channels, and more.
Amazon is guiding for huge growth in its fourth quarter of 2017, expecting net sales between $56 billion and $60.5 billion, up 28% to 38% compared to the year-ago quarter.
