Devices manufactured by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) have just had their most successful holiday shopping weekend ever after millions of units were sold over the five-day period. These devices included the Fire tablet, Amazon Echo, the Amazon Fire Stick combined with Alexa Voice Remote and the Echo Dot. These devices were not just the best-sellers in Amazon-branded products portfolio but were also the best-selling products in the online retailer’s entire product range. This information was contained in a press release issued on Tuesday.
Cyber Monday record
Retailers continue to cash on the Thanksgiving holiday shopping extravaganza with online sales on Cyber Monday hitting a new record of $3.45 billion. This was a 12 percent increase compared to last year. Adobe Systems also said it was the biggest online sales day ever in the United States. This year’s Black Friday had also set a record when online sales reached $3.34 billion which was a 21.6 percent increase from last year.
Though no figures were provided by Amazon, the online retail giant said the sales of devices on Cyber Monday doubled from last year. Some Amazon devices like the Fire TV sold 2.5 times more units compared to the Cyber Monday of 2015. Without giving exact numbers, Amazon said millions of units were sold. This was no doubt helped by the fact that the devices enjoyed price cuts throughout the holiday shopping weekend. Some of the other popular items on the online retailer’s website included Samsung 4K television sets, iPad tablets, Xbox and Sony PS4 gaming consoles and the Apple Watch.
The senior vice president of Amazon devices and services saw the surge in Amazon device sales as an opportunity for customers to tap into Alexa, Amazon’s AI personal assistant platform.
“It’s never been easier to have Alexa in any or every room, and we’re excited for millions of new customers to discover Alexa this holiday season,” said Limp.
Brick-and-mortar decline
As online sales surged, there was a decline in business for the physical stores. Figures from RetailNext showed that sales on Thanksgiving Day fell by 5% from last year. Black Friday was even darker with sales falling 7.9%.