Amazon says it has just had its “biggest holiday season to
date” as customers turned to the site to shop rather than venturing out to
physical stores. Although CNBC notes that the company did not share actual
sales figures for either Black Friday or Cyber Monday, in a blog post the
company revealed figures for independent sellers on its platform. Amazon says
these sellers saw over $4.8 billion in sales through the two shopping days
worldwide, an increase of 60 percent over last year.
“Through Cyber Monday, 2020 has been the largest holiday
shopping season so far in our company’s history thanks to customers around the
world,” Amazon wrote.
While Amazon’s sales reached record highs, traffic at
physical stores has reportedly plummeted. Preliminary data from Sensormatic
Solutions reported by CNBC said that in-store traffic fell by 52.1 percent this
Black Friday compared with 2019, as customers stayed home to avoid the crowds.
If current trends continue, 42 cents of every dollar spent this holiday season
could go to Amazon, according to one analysis, up from 36 cents last year.
Amazon says 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses
worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales so far this holiday season. But Amazon’s
own brands also appear to have sold gangbusters.
The company says customers bought “more Ring, Blink, and
eero devices on Amazon than during any previous holiday shopping weekend.” The
company adds that other top-selling devices on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
include its new Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick 4K.
Other top-sellers in the US over the holiday season include
Barack Obama’s book, A Promised Land; a Revlon hair dryer and volumizer hot air
brush; and a genetic DNA test ancestry kit from 23andMe.
Over the course of this year, Amazon has been one of the biggest
beneficiaries of changing shopping habits due to the pandemic. In its last
earnings release, the company reported that its net income nearly tripled in
the quarter compared to the previous year, and that’s not including its Prime
Day sale that had to be delayed this year. This growth has fueled a massive
hiring spree at the company, The New York Times reports, with Amazon adding
427,300 employees to its global workforce over the course of ten months.
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