Despite concerns about ongoing inflation and warnings that it would be slowing its growth, Amazon reported its “biggest holiday shopping weekend ever” as customers flocked to the e-commerce giant for deals.
In a blog post Wednesday, Amazon said customers purchased a record number of products during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. The company did not release specific sales data, and only said “hundreds of millions of products” were sold.
Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook conference Wednesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said “consumers are spending, but they’re being careful about trying to stretch their dollar.”
Amazon said its best-selling categories were home, fashion, toys, beauty, and Amazon devices. Best-selling items included Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, and Apple AirPods as well as Hasbro Gaming CONNECT 4, Burt’s Bees Christmas Gifts, apparel from Champion, apparel and shoes from New Balance, the Amazon Smart Plug, Echo Show, and Nintendo Switch.
The so-called Cyber Week shopping period brought in $35.27 billion, up 4% year over year, according to data released by Adobe Analytics. Black Friday online sales accounted for a record $9.12 billion of that in a 2.3% year-over-year, jump. Another $11.3 billion was spent on Cyber Monday in the biggest online shopping day of all time.
Amazon said last month it was preparing for a slower growth period and lowered its holiday quarter guidance. The company has paused hiring in its corporate workforce and began large-scale layoffs the week before Thanksgiving. Jassy said those layoffs will continue into the new year.
