10 Ways Amazon Won the Holiday Retail Wars
Life + Money

10 Ways Amazon Won the Holiday Retail Wars

Kim Kyung Hoon

E-commerce continued to grow at a rapid clip this holiday season, and Amazon demonstrated once again that it is the merchant to beat online.

The retailer announced Tuesday that the 2016 holiday season was its best ever. While Amazon didn’t provide a total sales figure, it did offer some amazing data points that show the scale of Amazon’s operations.

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Here are a few of the incredible numbers it shared:

  • 1 billion: The number of items shipped worldwide via Amazon during the holiday season.
  • 46: The number of electronics purchased -- per second -- on Amazon via mobile devices on Cyber Monday.
  • 200,000: The number of full-time and seasonal employees who worked for Amazon over the holidays.
  • 2.5 million: The number of watches purchased on Amazon during the holiday season.
  • 13: The number of minutes between order and deliver of the fastest Amazon Prime Now order, which occurred in Redondo Beach, California, on Christmas Eve.

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  • 72 percent: The share of Amazon customers worldwide who used a mobile device to place their order.
  • 45,000: The number of robotic units that work alongside Amazon associates at more than 20 fulfillment centers.
  • 1 million: The number of items shipped in a single day from fulfillment centers in San Marcos, Texas, and Kent, Washington.
  • 900 percent: Increase in sales of Amazon Echo devices in 2016 over 2015. Echo Dot is now the best-selling, most gifted item on Amazon.com.
  • 300 years:  How long it would take to watch all of the Harry Potter film sets sold on Amazon this season.

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