One reason Amazon has survived as an enduring Internet brand is that during downturns it takes market share, and this holiday season looks like it will be no different. Amazon announced its 14th record holiday season, with 72.9 items ordered every second, up from 62.5 last year. What really counts is its revenues and profits, which Amazon does not get into, but the holiday stats do provide some sense of how much shopping occurred on it site.
The day that orders peaked was on December 15th, when 6.3 million items were placed into Amazon’s checkout carts. That number was up 17 percent from the peak order day in 2007 (December 10). With five fewer shopping days this season, orders shipped peaked at 5.6 million on a single day, up 44 percent from last year. Some of the best-selling items this year included Eyeclops night vision stealth goggles, the Nintendo Wii, Razor scooters, Samsung 52-inch LCD HDTVs, The Dark Knight DVD, and the Twilight Saga books by Stephanie Meyer. Amazon says it was able to ship 99 percent of all holiday items in time for Christmas.
How does this year compare to seasons past? Barclays analyst Doug Anmuth provides the following comparisons:
Peak items ordered on a single day
2008: 6.3M
2007: 5.4M
2006: 4.0M
2005: 3.6M
2004: 3.6M
Items ordered per second
2008: 72.9
2007: 62.5
2006: 46.3
2005: 41
2004: 32
Peak items shipped on a single day
2008: 5.6M
2007: 3.9M
2006: 3.4M
2005: 2.7M
2004: 2M+
I wonder how eBay did compared to last year.
I am sure they had a banner year as well but what I would love to find-out is how this compares to other major e-commerce sites and those which are brick/online hybrids such as Barnes and Noble.
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories
eBay has a 16% drop in traffic this year, compared with Amazon’s 6% increase in traffic — when compared with last year.
I think revenue will reflect this, eBay reports revenue early next year.
That’s wild…
- Scott from http://scottdig.com (A venture capitalist blog discussing life, tech, culture and the four hour work week)
Having a sig that’s 20x the length of your comment? Go spamvertise somewhere else.
Wish I could stab scottdig in the face over the internet!
I wonder how many of those sales were made on mobile devices – especially with all the new apps and programs for iPhone and Blackberry users? I would be an interesting statistic to find out.
Agreed. Knowing where the sales came from would be useful to know for other online retailers.
Didn’t Amazon’s servers crash last year during the holidays
Can anyone compete with Amazon?
Amazon is always ahead of its competitors, and is an inspiring company. They survived that wild dotcom bubble burst, this downturn will not even itch them.
They still could do better…their .ca .uk .whatever sites have crap for inventory and amazon.com won’t ship outside of the US for a lot of products. I can’t even get nose hair clippers from Amazon…I have a hairy nose…
Not too surprising considering how well Amazon executes.
I would rather purchase from Amazon than any other retailer – it seems lots of folks agree.
ebay is dead, if they can’t compete numbers wise… expect more layoffs.
The fact that they offered free trials of the Prime program must have helped. I know that’s why I did most of my holiday shopping from Amazon this year.
This is the 3rd straight year that I have done 90% of my Christmas shopping at Amazon. It’s incredibly convenient and being a prime member gets things to me quickly. Also, if you’re willing to take the time and make a phone call, then Amazon will price match other online retailers.
If only a few million of those could’ve come from my referral codes…
Maybe then I wouldn’t be doing laundry today.
Since Amazon and Walmart.com ran head-to-head on Thanksgiving and Black Friday (Amazon took the round), I would have liked to see another comparison between the two.
While these numbers are impressive – they do not include the most important numbers (actually, the only number that counts) – sales $$.
What were their sales?
Amazon.com is one of the sites that i’ve been following from quite a long time. Great to learn more about this site. cheers.
amazon > ebay
Amazon Prime is addictive. They got me with the free trial a few years ago and I have not looked back.
amazon is only delaying the inevitable. Amazon is history.
amazon certainty is going it’s way up.
for those sellers out there that are still using eBay as only channel.. this is a good reason to jump on the amazon train before it’s too late for them.
i found this post also which compared eBay Vs. Amazon:
http://www.blog...-the-wind-blow/
I suppose this is what happens when you provide the products people want, at a good price and do it well.
And all of the collapsed companies wonder why they’ve collapsed…
Amazon won’t be the only winner, but the list will be short. In my retail predictions post, here are some other holidays winner predictions… Low priced/ high design discounters like Target, Home ‘n Hearth items, quality long pasting toys. My list was pretty short
i had been shopping with amazon for less than 2 yrs but my experience with them had been fantastic.absolutely no returns on my part, from healthcare to films,apparels and accessories.i love their amazon reward cards and i am waiting for my twilight saga books right now.amazon is very reliable, no wonder consumers rely on them for whatever they need. i had been endorsing amazon to friends too who had been thinking that amazon only sells books.whatever you need,amazon’s got it!!
Amazon is the best! I went to a Barnes & Noble after Christmas – It took me three stops to find the DVD – what a joke – Next time Amazon Prime and two days later at the door.
I run a network of 28+ sites that use Amazon for their affiliate program – the numbers above match for what we saw for sales and conversions – we’re up over last year by more than 6% in our Amazon numbers and our overall revenue from Amazon is up as well. They are always a good bet. Long live Amazon.
Nick Charlton’s comments are spot on! Amazon is a bell weather to all businesses, provide a service or product that people want or need, at a reasonable price and make it easy to buy!
I went on Amazon to buy a book. 2 days later I received an email telling me the product is no longer available.
I gave Amazon another try 2 weeks later, I checkout 2 products. 3 days later, Amazon emailed me one product is no longer available. The other product, Amazon told there’s a 2 week delay.
This pisses me to no end. From that day on, I will never shop on Amazon again.
Love to see the periodic positive story like this mixed in with all the doom and gloom published by the mainstream press. The strong will survive.
Great to know Amazon is doing well, but Amazon is more of a retailer and doesn’t beat eBay on the fact of bidding and auctions.
But, amazon is certainly appealing. Great, and I’m highly convinced that it will beat eBay. I’m sure I’ll use Amazon in the future.
The strong and steady players win the game in the end. Amazon provides ease and convenience and no non-sense pricing.
Amazon makes the price so cheap that you feel guilty NOT buying from them!
Amazon is a world leader, seconds after Michael Jackson died his music all went to the top of the best sellers chart. Amazon did not run out of MJ inventory which is amazing considering the volums of items ordered!
Amazon makes the price so cheap that you feel guilty NOT buying from them
Wow..thats an incredible amount of sales for one day! Amazon still rules the ecommerce internet!
with so many products listed in Amazon, you will find something for almost any niche! the 24 hour cookie should be longer though!