Global online giant Amazon has released sales data from the 2016 holiday season and the numbers and types of items bought will sober up any retailer who ate their aunt's Christmas sherry trifle.
A staggering 1 billion-plus items were shipped worldwide over the Christmas break – termed the "holiday season" – from its Prime Now hubs and fulfilment centres, the Amazon distribution centres.
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The group said its peak day was December 19, while December 23 was the biggest day ever for Prime Now deliveries worldwide, where members ordered three times more items compared to last year with one and two-hour delivery worldwide.
And to put fear into the hearts of electrical and technical device retailers, the main product was Amazon's own Alexa devices. These are Echo speakers based on the Alexa's voice-recognition software, they include Echo Dot, Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick.
![Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You was one of the top songs played through Amazon's Alexa devices this ...](/web/20161231184447im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/g/o/m/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtj9gu.png/1482984230396.jpg)
The sales, [although Amazon did not release dollar values], came on the back of Cyber Monday in November, where Amazon customers worldwide purchased about 46 electronics per second on a mobile device and about 36 toys per second on a mobile device.
In a report from Citi Australia, released in August, its author Craig Woolford, said it's not "if, but when" Amazon arrives in Australia and he predicted it will hit retailers such as Harvey Norman and JB HI-FI very hard.
Amazon uses fulfilment centres – very large warehouses across the world – and is said to be looking for appropriate space in Australia. Industrial agents say Goodman Group's Oakdale industrial estate could be a possibility.
To help its more than 200,000 full-time and seasonal staff, Amazon also has 45,000 robotics units working in more than 20 fulfilment centres.
![Parcels are processed and prepared for dispatch at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough, England, in the lead-up ...](/web/20161231184447im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/w/m/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtj9gu.png/1482984230396.jpg)
And, according to Amazon's latest figures released after Boxing Day, electrical items flew off the shelves.
The group said sales for Amazon's devices including Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet and Amazon Echo, were up more than nine times compared to last year's holiday season and millions of Alexa devices sold worldwide this year.
![Amazon Tap is a portable battery-powered version of the older Echo, which responds to verbal commands such as "turn on ...](/web/20161231184447im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/a/6/3/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtj9gu.png/1482984230396.jpg)
No actual sales amounts were released, but the devices, such as the Echo Dot, sell for $US49.99, while tablets start at about $US120 per item. Audio and accessories included Panasonic ErgoFit in-ear earbud headphones, AmazonBasics six-outlet surge protector power strip, Sonos PLAY:1 compact wireless smart speaker for streaming music.
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To ensure everyone could watch the most "requested holiday movies", old favourites Home Alone and Elf, Amazon.com customers purchased enough 4K TVs to reach the peak of Mount Everest more than nine times.
One person that will be happy, following her break up with James Packer, is singer Mariah Carey, whose song, All I Want for Christmas Is You, was one of the top ones played through the Alexa device, along with Jingle Bells, the 1999-remaster by Frank Sinatra and Mariah Carey and Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano.
Amazon's chief executive worldwide consumer, Jeff Wilke, said Echo and Echo Dot were the best-selling products across Amazon this year, and "we're thrilled that millions of new customers will be introduced to Alexa as a result".
"Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock. From turning on Christmas lights and playing holiday music to shopping for gifts and asking for help with cookie recipes, Alexa continues to get smarter every day," Mr Wilke said.
According to Amazon, thanks to cooking shows on television, customers purchased enough KitchenAid mixers this holiday to make nearly 7.5 million cookies at once.
Customers purchased enough copies of Harry Potter: The Complete 8-Film Collection to play consecutively for more than 300 years.
Mr Wilke said if each Amazon.com customer who purchased Pokemon Sun and Moon this holiday spent at least an hour a day playing the game since its release, "our customers would have spent the equivalent of more than 24 thousand lunar cycles capturing Pokemon".
The sporting minded, which many Australians are, were not left behind with Amazon customers buying enough golf balls this holiday that, if lined up, would equal the length of Pebble Beach golf course four times over, and enough running shoes to run 18,603 times around the globe.
Jewellery retailers are also under pressure with Amazon saying it sold 2.5 million watches – that is a watch purchased every 1.5 seconds this holiday season.
"Amazon.com customers purchased 10,451 carats of diamonds, which is equal to 6.5 Russian Kokoshnik tiaras, one of the Queen of England's most famous tiaras," Mr Wilke said.
The mining sector will be happy to know that Amazon.com customers also bought the weight of a "grizzly bear in gold and the weight of a rhinoceros in silver".
The last Prime Now order delivered in time for Christmas was delivered at 11:59 pm on December 24 to a Prime member in Irvine, California, who was clearly feeling the effects of the season as it included a heated mattress pad, NyQuil and Afrin nasal spray.
However, perhaps in preparation for the usual tetchy family Christmas gatherings, an order was made from Virginia on December 24 for Venum Contender boxing gloves.
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