Record-Setting Holiday Season for Amazon Prime More than one million customers become new Prime members in third week of December
On Christmas Day, Mayday response time on Kindle Fire HDX was just 9 seconds on average, better than the 15 second response time goal
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 26, 2013-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon today announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, the annual membership program offering unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December. On Amazon's peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season.
Amazon Prime membership continues to grow, and we now have tens of millions of members worldwide. They benefit from all-you-can-eat free two-day shipping on millions of eligible items and our members have a voracious appetite, said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. We are extremely grateful to our customers around the world and wish everyone the very best for the coming year.
Kindle and Amazon Digital Media Facts:
Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend was the best ever for Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers.
With thousands of Tech Advisors on call Christmas Day, Amazon beat its goal for the Mayday button response time-the average response time was just 9 seconds.
Amazon's digital media selection grew to more than 27 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games in 2013.
Prime Instant Video selection increased from 33,000 to more than 40,000 movies and TV episodes in 2013. Amazon Instant Video now includes more than 150,000 movies and TV episodes.
Prime Instant Video is the exclusive online-only subscription home for hundreds of TV seasons including PBS series Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge, the CBS summer blockbuster series Under the Dome and other hit TV shows including Justified, Falling Skies, Grimm, Vikings, Workaholics, Suits and Covert Affairs. Prime Instant Video also offers an exclusive collection of kids shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. that customers won't find on any other online-only subscription service, including favorites like SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, Blue's Clues, and The Bubble Guppies.
Amazon's first original series Alpha House and Betas can also be found exclusively on Prime Instant Video.
Selection in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library in 2013 grew from 250,000 books to more than 475,000 books-books that Kindle owners with a Prime membership can borrow for free with no due dates.
More than 200,000 exclusive books were added to the Kindle store in 2013.
The most gifted Kindle book during the holiday season was Sycamore Row by John Grisham.
150 Kindle Direct Publishing authors each sold more than 100,000 copies of their books in 2013. Top sellers this year include Hopeless by Colleen Hoover and Wait for Me by Elisabeth Naughton.
The best-selling Kindle Direct Publishing author during the holiday season was H.M. Ward.
Kindle Direct Publishing authors sold hundreds of thousands of books in November through the new Kindle Countdown Deals.
Amazon Appstore selection worldwide more than doubled in 2013 - there are now more than 100,000 apps and games in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire devices.
Holiday Fun Facts:
Shipping:
Amazon shipped to 185 countries this holiday.
The last Prime One-Day Shipping order that was delivered in time for Christmas was placed on Dec. 23 at 10:22 p.m. PST and shipped to Carlsbad, California. The item was a Beautyrest Cotton Top Mattress Pad.
The last Local Express Delivery order that was delivered in time for Christmas went to Everett, Washington. It was a Plantronics Audio 655 USB Multimedia Headset in Frustration Free Packaging ordered at 12:26 p.m. PST on Christmas Eve and delivered at 3:56 p.m. PST that same day.
Amazon.com shipped enough items with Prime this holiday to deliver at least one gift to every household in America.
Prime was so popular this holiday, that Amazon limited new Prime membership signups during peak periods to ensure service to current members was not impacted by the surge in new membership.
Customer Purchases:
On Cyber Monday, customers ordered more than 36.8 million items worldwide, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second.
More than half of Amazon customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday.
Between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, Amazon customers ordered more than five toys per second from a mobile device.
Amazon customers purchased enough Crayola Marker Makers to be able to draw a line around the world four times.
The new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles were so popular that at the peak of sales for each console, customers bought more than 1,000 units per minute.
Amazon customers purchased enough Rainbow Looms from third-party sellers that the bands can stretch around the circumference of the Earth.
Amazon customers purchased enough Hot Wheels from third-party sellers to stretch around the Daytona International Speedway racetrack.
Amazon customers purchased enough miniature flashlights to satisfactorily light four collegiate football fields in accordance with NCAA standards.
Amazon customers purchased enough running shoes to provide a pair to every participant in the top 10 largest marathons in the world.
Amazon customers purchased enough winter boots to keep everyone living in three of the coldest cities in America -
