How many items did you purchase from Amazon as gifts for friends and family this holiday season? All those purchases add up. Amazon announced a record-breaking holiday season thanks to its customers all around the world, with more items ordered worldwide than ever before.
In a press release, Amazon revealed some interesting data about what people bought. It also included information, that I personally find to be sort of creepy, about how people used Alexa this holiday season.
- Customers purchased millions more Amazon Devices this holiday season compared to last year – the best-selling Amazon Devices this holiday included all-new Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with all-new Alexa Voice Remote, and Echo.
- It was a record holiday season for Amazon’s Kids Edition devices; customers purchased more Echo Dot Kids Edition and Fire Kids Edition tablets than ever before.
- Customers purchased millions of Amazon Fire TV, Fire Tablet, and Kindle products this holiday season.
- The best-selling electronics this holiday season 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.
- More than 50 percent of items sold via Amazon this holiday season came from small and medium-sized businesses.
- The best-selling items at Amazon 4-star this holiday season included Amazon Smart Plug, al-new Echo Dot, Becoming by Michele Obama, L.O.L Surprise! Under Wraps Doll Series toys, and the DASH Rapid Egg Cooker.
The part of the press release that made me a little uncomfortable was the portions that revealed how much data Amazon can gather up from consumers. Here are some examples:
- The fastest grocery delivery this holiday season took place in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was delivered in 12 minutes and 19 seconds, and contained La Croix Sparkling Water and Zevia soda.
- Customers used Alexa to listen to hundreds of millions of hours of music this holiday season, compared to last holiday season, and on even more services – including Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music, among others.
- The number one holiday song that customers requested this holiday season was “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey.
- Customers asked Alexa to turn on their holiday lights tens of millions of times this holiday season, with the number one request being “Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree.”
- Customers requested 3x as many recipes this holiday season compared to last and asked Alexa for cooking-related advice twice as much.
- Alexa helped mix hundreds of thousands of cocktails this holiday season – with eggnog and Moscow Mule being the most requested drinks.
- The last Prime Now delivery on Christmas Eve was made at 11:30 pm in Berkeley, CA and included LEGO Super Heroes Captain America Building Kit, a Hallmark card, Greek yogurt, and shampoo.