Amazon Celebrates Biggest Holiday; More Than Four Million People Trialed Prime In One Week Alone This Season

Over two million items shipped with Same-Day/One-Day Delivery in Canada

Items shipped with FREE One-Day Shipping or FREE Same-Day Delivery more than doubled this holiday season worldwide

Small businesses and entrepreneurs had a record-breaking season with more than one billion items ordered worldwide

Echo Dot was the #1 top-selling product across all categories on Amazon

SEATTLE, Dec. 26, 2017 /CNW/ - (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon celebrated its biggest holiday season with customers all around the world shopping at record levels. Prime membership continued to grow this holiday – in fact, in one week alone, more than four million people started Prime free trials or began paid memberships to benefit from free two-day, one-day or same-day shipping.

Customers shopped from hundreds of millions of products, including a vast selection from small businesses and entrepreneurs. More than one billion items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide this season – and over just five days, from November 23^rd through Cyber Monday, nearly 140 million items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs. Amazon Devices also had its best holiday yet, with tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices sold worldwide. Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were not only the top-selling Amazon devices this holiday season, but they were also the best-selling products from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon.

"Since Day One we have obsessed over what we believe our customers care about – incredible deals and low prices, fast and free shipping, and a wide selection of top products – and we continue to provide all three, all the time. We're excited that people continued to join Prime this holiday, to take advantage of more fast and free shipping options, as well as early access to Lightning Deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, including Prime Originals and more," stated Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer. "Thank you to the millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees all around the world who made this holiday better than ever before. We look forward to another great year ahead."

Holiday Bestsellers in Canada and Worldwide

• The best-selling smart home product in Canada and worldwide was the TP-Link Smart Plug.
• Instant Pot pressure cookers and accessories were among the best-selling kitchen products on Amazon.ca.
• The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals was the best-selling physical book on Amazon.ca.
• Sony MDRZX110 On-Ear Headphones were among the best-selling electronics products on Amazon.ca.
• TubShroom, The Revolutionary Tub Drain Protector Hair Catcher/Strainer/Snare was among the best-selling home products on Amazon.ca.
• The top selling toys on Amazon.ca were Fingerlings - Interactive Baby Monkey - Sophie (White with Pink Hair) By WowWee, Cards Against Humanity: Canadian Edition and What Do You Meme? Adult Party Game.
• Tile Mate - Key Finder was among the top selling wireless electronics products on Amazon.ca.
• The top selling DVDs on Amazon.ca were Game of Thrones: Season 7, The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Tenth Season, The Crown - Season 1, Harry Potter: The Complete 8-Film Collection and American Horror Story: Roanoke.
• The best-selling toy and game item worldwide was What Do You Meme? Adult Party Game.
• The best-selling beauty item worldwide was the Philips Sonicare Diamond Clean Rechargeable Toothbrush.
• The best-selling health and personal care item worldwide was the AncestryDNA: Genetic Testing - DNA Ancestry Test Kit.

Amazon Devices and Alexa

• It was a record holiday shopping season for Amazon Devices, with millions more devices purchased worldwide this year, than last year's holiday season.
• This holiday season was better than ever for the family of Echo products. The Echo Dot was the #1 selling Amazon Device this holiday season, and the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon, with millions sold.
• Customers purchased more than twice as many Amazon Fire TV Sticks compared to last year's holiday season. Fire TV continues to be the number one streaming media player family in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Japan, across all retailers.
• This year, Kindle celebrated its 10^th holiday season.
• This holiday, millions of Prime members voice shopped with Alexa for gifts, Amazon devices and everyday household essentials. The most popular items purchased by voice were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and TP-Link Smart Plug Mini.
• Alexa helped mix tens of thousands of cocktails this holiday season with Martini and Manhattan being the most requested drinks.
• The recipe for chocolate chip cookies was the most requested recipe this holiday season.
• The most requested song from Alexa customers this holiday season was "Jingle Bells."
• Alexa customers turned on their holiday lights more than a million times via Alexa this holiday season.
• Alexa customers asked for tens of millions of jokes this holiday season.
• Music listening time on Alexa was three times as much this holiday season compared to last holiday season.
• Customers wished Alexa a Merry Christmas, Happy holidays and Happy Hanukkah three and a half times more this year when compared to last year's holiday season.
• People asked about Santa four times as much this holiday season compared to last holiday season.
• Customers asked Alexa for cooking related advice more than nine times as much this year compared to last holiday season.
• The most requested movies this holiday season via Alexa were Trolls and Elf.
• Alexa customers set three times as many timers this year compared to last holiday season.

Amazon Delivered this Holiday

• Across North America and the Europe, associates at 10 fulfillment centres picked, packed, and shipped more than one million customer packages in a single day.
• Amazon's peak day of customer fulfillment in 2017 was December 19, 2017.
• In 2017, we increased the size of our fulfillment and shipping network by more than 30 per cent in square footage worldwide.
• Between November 23^rd and Christmas, Amazon Air carried enough packages to equal over a billion Echo Dots.
• An Amazon Air cargo plane can hold more than 10,000 Instant Pots.

Mobile Shopping

• The top five items ordered on a mobile device were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and the TP-Link Smart Plug.
• Customers worldwide shopping on the Amazon App increased nearly 70 per cent this holiday season.
• More than 1,400 electronics products were ordered per second on a mobile device this holiday season.

Community Giving

• The "Delivering Smiles" holiday tour expanded Amazon's growing support of children and families in immediate need. To learn more about each nonprofit Amazon visited throughout their "Delivering Smiles" tour in the US and Canada, visit https://blog.aboutamazon.com/delivering-smiles.

Digital Entertainment

• This year, four times more music from Amazon Music was streamed over Alexa compared to last holiday season.
• Amazon Music listeners loved using the lyrics feature to ask for songs on Alexa over the holidays, requesting "Jingle Bells" more than any other festive track just by saying a few words from the song.
• Listeners wanted to slow down and unwind this season, asking Alexa to play "relaxing" music more than any other mood through Amazon Music.
• Christmas by Michael Bublé was once again the most played album on Amazon Music during the holiday season.
• "All I want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey held the top spot for the most streamed holiday song on Amazon Music for the second year in a row.
• The most watched season over the holidays was the Golden Globe-nominated Prime Original The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
• The most watched series this holiday was The Grand Tour.
• The most watched Amazon Original movie this holiday season was The Big Sick.
• The most watched Kids Prime Original over the holidays was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
• The most purchased movie over the holidays was Elf.
• The most purchased series over the holidays was The Walking Dead.
• The most-read Kindle book in Amazon First Reads in 2017 was, Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.
• The best-selling and most-listened-to audiobook of 2017 was The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson, narrated by Roger Wayne.
• The most-listened-to fiction audiobook of 2017 was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale.
• The most-commented-on audiobook of 2017 was Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, narrated by the author.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

SOURCE Amazon Canada

Andrew Gouveia, NATIONAL Public Relations, [email protected], 416-848-1385