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Online shopping behemoth Amazon’s 21st holiday season was a record breaker for the company on several fronts as consumers flocked to the Web-based retail giant for everything from consumer electronics to films and original programming content.
In addition, more than three million members worldwide joined Prime during the third week of December, bringing new levels of growth to the membership program which offers unlimited free two-day shipping, free same-day delivery and access to the company’s slate of original entertainment programming.
The company also continues to gain ground on the hardware front despite axing its smartphone earlier this year—Amazon devices, including the all-new Fire tablet, Amazon Echo and Fire TV Stick, made up three of the top five items ordered on Christmas Eve through Prime Now.
Overall, it was the biggest holiday ever for Amazon devices, up to two times bigger than last year’s record-setting holiday, with the latest Fire tablet and Amazon Echo topping this year’s most wished-for and gifted items for Amazon customers.
The company shipped to 185 countries this holiday, with the number of Prime members shopping through mobile more than doubling this holiday in the United States.
Nearly 70 percent of Amazon customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday, and on Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide ordered more than 33 electronics per second from a mobile device.
Consumers are increasingly relying on mobile and other technology to better manage their busy holidays—even allowing them to get more rest, according to a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers by Sequence, a San Francisco-based independent agency.
As part of Amazon’s year-end sales tally and public victory lap came its annual tradition of illustrating just how much merchandise Amazon moves—this holiday season, customers purchased more than enough 50-inch TVs to span the average width of the Grand Canyon.
Customers purchased enough women’s boots this holiday season that, if stacked on top of each other, they would be high enough to reach the orbit of the International Space Station. The number of jeans Amazon customers purchased this holiday season would cover the driving distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles if laid out end-to-end.
Amazon fans also purchased enough Jenga sets this holiday season to reach the top of the Empire State Building more than 70 times and enough Legos to build life-sized replicas of every person attending a sold-out Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field.
The company’s best selling PC was the Toshiba C55 Laptop, while the Kindle Fire was the best selling tablet, and the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal solid state drive was Amazon Business’ best-selling item.