Amazon Reports Biggest Holiday Season Ever

In its usual manner of boasting about big numbers without offering any specific data, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) on Tuesday said that its 2017 holiday season had customers around the world “shopping at record levels” for “hundreds of millions of products.” Small businesses and entrepreneurs sold more than 1 billion items this season, including 140 million over the five-day Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday shopping period.

Amazon said it sold “tens of millions” Alexa-enabled devices globally and that the company’s Echo Dot and Fire TV stick with Alexa voice remote were the best-selling products from any manufacturer in any category across the all of Amazon’s websites.

Amazon Prime, the company’s subscription delivery service that includes video streaming and other throw-in services, counted more than 4 million new paid or trial memberships during the holiday season.

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Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s CEO Worldwide Consumer, said:

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 plus new convenient delivery like Amazon Key, as well as early access to Lightning Deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, including Prime Originals and more.

Here are some highlights Amazon called out:

• Whole Foods Market sold more than 500,000 pounds of treats at cookie bars in stores around the country,
• Echo Dot was the top-selling device in Amazon’s 13 book stores.
• Instant Pot DUO80 was the best-selling kitchen item this year.
• A Black & Decker cordless drill/driver was the best-selling tool.
• The best-selling major appliance in the United States was a Samsung 1.1-cubic foot countertop microwave oven.

Amazon stock traded down about 0.3% early Tuesday, at $1,165.44 in a 52-week range of $747.70 to $1,213.41. The 12-month consensus price target is $1,274.60.

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