Study: Amazon on track to grab half of e-commerce holiday sales

11/29/2017
It's shaping up as a record Christmas for Amazon — and it has its Prime members to thank.

The online giant is on pace to comprise roughly half of all e-commerce holiday sales made in the United States this year, according to GBH Insights. This is a large piece of the pie with overall e-commerce growth rising roughly 20% year-over-year each holiday season.

According to Daniel Ives, head of technology research at GBH, Prime members are considered the “golden jewel” of the Amazon empire. This group is an estimated 85 million members strong — and their spending power is on the rise.

Prime members, a group that is increasing significantly (~40%) year-over-year, are also expected to spend between 20% and 25% more this holiday season than a year ago, the study revealed.

“The ring-fence that Amazon has built around its Prime customer base has significantly benefited the company in a fiercely competitive Cyber Monday pricing environment with much more competitive prices from Walmart in particular, seen across inventory during the day,” Ives said. “With e-commerce Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales so far trending above expectations, these are very positive data points heading into the rest of holiday season for Amazon (and its investors), in particular.”

Prime members contributed to a blockbuster Cyber Monday for the online giant. Sales were so big that Cyber Monday became the company’s single biggest shopping day — unseating the e-retailer’s Prime Day shopping event this summer.

Customers ordered “hundreds of millions of products” on Amazon from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Amazon App orders on Cyber Monday increased more than 50% worldwide year-over-year.

The online giant is citing Cyber Monday 2017 as its single biggest shopping day in the company’s history, surpassing Prime Day 2017, which generated approximately $1 billion in revenue, according to initial estimates from analysts at Cowen & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Some estimates put the total even higher.)
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