Skip to main content

Amazon boasts of ‘biggest holiday season’ ever as in-store shopping plummets

Amazon boasts of ‘biggest holiday season’ ever as in-store shopping plummets

/

Foot traffic to traditional stores reportedly fell by 52.1 percent on Black Friday

Share this story

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge

Amazon says it has just had its “biggest holiday season to date” as customers turned to the site to shop rather than venturing out to physical stores. Although CNBC notes that the company did not share actual sales figures for either Black Friday or Cyber Monday, in a blog post the company revealed figures for independent sellers on its platform. Amazon says these sellers saw over $4.8 billion in sales through the two shopping days worldwide, an increase of 60 percent over last year.

“Through Cyber Monday, 2020 has been the largest holiday shopping season so far in our company’s history thanks to customers around the world,” Amazon wrote.

While Amazon’s sales reached record highs, traffic at physical stores has reportedly plummeted. Preliminary data from Sensormatic Solutions reported by CNBC said that in-store traffic fell by 52.1 percent this Black Friday compared with 2019, as customers stayed home to avoid the crowds. If current trends continue, 42 cents of every dollar spent this holiday season could go to Amazon, according to one analysis, up from 36 cents last year.

“2020 has been the largest holiday shopping season so far in our company’s history.”

Amazon says 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales so far this holiday season. But Amazon’s own brands also appear to have sold gangbusters.

The company says customers bought “more Ring, Blink, and eero devices on Amazon than during any previous holiday shopping weekend.” The company adds that other top-selling devices on Black Friday and Cyber Monday include its new Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick 4K.

Other top-sellers in the US over the holiday season include Barack Obama’s book, A Promised Land; a Revlon hair dryer and volumizer hot air brush; and a genetic DNA test ancestry kit from 23andMe.

Over the course of this year, Amazon has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of changing shopping habits due to the pandemic. In its last earnings release, the company reported that its net income nearly tripled in the quarter compared to the previous year, and that’s not including its Prime Day sale that had to be delayed this year. This growth has fueled a massive hiring spree at the company, The New York Times reports, with Amazon adding 427,300 employees to its global workforce over the course of ten months.