Amazon announced news on Wednesday (Dec. 26) that it had a record-breaking holiday season in 2018, with more items ordered around the globe than any other year past.
In a press release, the eCommerce giant said customers shopped at record levels for an array of products across every department. Some of the best-selling products of the season were the Echo Dot, L.O.L Surprise! Glam Glitter Series Doll, fashion items from Carhartt and Bose QuietComfort Wireless Headphones.
Amazon also announced that Prime memberships grew during the holiday season, with tens of millions of people starting free trials or paying for memberships to get access to free same-day, one-day or two-day shipping and free two-hour delivery with Prime Now. The company said millions of items in the U.S. were shipped with Prime free shipping promotions during the holidays.
“This season was our best yet, and we look forward to continuing to bring our customers what they want, in ways most convenient for them in 2019. We are thrilled that in the U.S. alone, more than 1 billion items shipped for free this holiday with Prime,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer, in the press release. “Thank you to our employees all around the world who are committed to bringing our customers the widest selection of products with low prices and fast and free delivery options throughout the holidays and all year long.”
The best-selling Amazon devices during the holidays were the all-new Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with all-new Alexa Voice Remote and Echo. Customers purchased millions of Amazon Fire TV, Fire Table and Kindle products. The eCommerce giant noted that Ring and Blink sold more devices during the holidays than ever before and that a record number of smart home devices were sold, with the Amazon Smart Plug, Ring Video Doorbell 2, TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini Outlet and the iRobot Roomba 690 coming in as best sellers.
Top electronics included Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, the Samsung Flat 65” 4K UHD 8 Series Smart LED TV, Apple iPad (Wi-Fi, 32GB) in Space Gray, Wemo Mini Smart Plug, Blue Yeti USB Microphone in Blackout, Wyze Cam 1080p HD Indoor Wireless Smart Home Camera and HP Sprocket Photo Paper.