Sales and Amazon Prime memberships soared this season.
By Wise Marketer Staff
As we reported yesterday, this holiday season, though not yet over, is likely one of the best that retailers have had since the great depression. Virtually all indicators point to sales that have exceeded expectations across most major categories.
And yet, in the midst of the merriment, you can’t help but feel a little bit anxious when it dust clears and you realize that a huge portion of those retail good tidings occurred via Amazon. Not only that, Amazon reports that new Prime memberships shot up as well.
First, a few statistics for some context:
- More than one billion items were ordered from small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide this season – and over just five days, from November 23rdthrough Cyber Monday.
- Over the course of one week, more than 4 million people became Prime members or started a free trial, sending Amazon's membership count to new highs.
- During November and December more than 4 million people became Prime members or started a free trial. (Amazon doesn't reveal how many Prime members it has, though analyst estimates are as high as 80 million)
- Amazon is again expected to grab the bulk, or more than 50 percent, of new holiday online sales in 2017.
If you’re not moved by those first two items, the third one should take your breath away. The first reports of Amazon’s sales on this order of magnitude started surfacing around Black Friday. As stunning as those statements are, you might be able to rationalize Amazon’s dominance due to the fact that Cyber Monday is largely an online event … but the entire holiday season?
And analysts are only predicting more of the same stratospheric growth in upcoming months.
According to CNBC,
“Amazon's robust holiday sales bode well for a fourth-quarter beat and show the e-commerce giant's "significant momentum" heading into 2018, according to one Wall Street firm.”
Further,
"We believe organically Amazon can build out a pharmacy/prescription business through potential partnerships (e.g. Express Scripts or drug makers would make sense) as the company's Prime membership and distribution capabilities are a clear cross sell opportunity," Ives wrote. "We will be very surprised if Amazon does not put significant resources and efforts towards a move into pharmacy."
For further insights on how Amazon is dominating so many aspects of retail, we recommend taking a look at rDialogue’s recent White Paper entitled, “Loyalty 3.0 is Now”. You can find it here.
