Amazon Sets Season Record With Echo Sales

Amazon and Alexa, its virtual personal assistant, have something to cheer about this holiday season record sales of Amazon Echo family of devices.

In a press release, Amazon said the 2016 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon with the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire Tablet and Amazon Echo on the top of the bestseller lists. What’s more, sales of the Amazon Echo family of devices were up nine times compared to the holiday season last year.

“Echo and Echo Dot were the bestselling products across Amazon this year, and we’re thrilled that millions of new customers will be introduced to Alexa as a result,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO worldwide consumer for Amazon, in a press release announcing sales results. “ Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock. From turning on Christmas lights and playing holiday music to shopping for gifts and asking for help with cookie recipes, Alexa continues to get smarter every day.”

“We couldn’t have made this holiday season possible for customers without the dedication and hard work of our customer service, transportation, and fulfillment associates along with our carrier partners — it’s amazing to see the teams come together to serve customers during the holidays,” added Wilke.

It wasn’t only Amazon Echo and Alexa that did well during the holiday shopping season. Amazon said more than 1 billion items were shipped around the world with Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon with more people around the globe trying Amazon Prime this year compared to any of the years past. Amazon said the fastest Prime Now delivery happened on Christmas Eve and took 13 minutes to be delivered to a Prime member in Redondo Beach, Calif. The order included a Tile Slim Item Finder and a Tile Mate Key Finder.

Amazon said Dec. 23 was the biggest day in Amazon’s history for Prime Now deliveries worldwide, with Prime members ordering three times more items compared to a year ago with one- and two-hour delivery. The Echo Dot, Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick and Oreo cookies were some of the most popular items ordered that day in the U.S., reported Amazon. As for mobile shopping, Amazon said greater than 72 percent of customers around the world used a mobile device to shop this holiday season, with shopping on the Amazon app growing 56 percent during the holidays.