Amazon said that Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day ever—beating out the previous title-holder, Prime Day, the sales extravaganza the company held in July.
But as is typical with the company, it failed to provide any specific numbers to judge its self-congratulations on Wednesday. Nor did it define what it meant by “biggest single shopping day worldwide,” a vague term that could imply the most revenue ever, items sold, or customers—or any combination thereof.
Earlier this week Amazon said that it sold the most Amazon devices ever over the long Thanksgiving holiday. Over what Amazon calls the “Turkey 5″—Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday—Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s retail business, said that customers ordered “hundreds of millions of products from toys to fashion to electronics and Amazon devices,” and that they ordered nearly “140 million items from small businesses alone.” The most popular Cyber Monday product was the Echo Dot, Amazon’s voice activated mini-speaker.
In terms of how customers shopped, Amazon noted an increase in mobile device shopping with orders through Amazon’s app rising 50%. Again, how many orders that means is anyone’s guess.
Retailers who sell through Amazon—Ancestry, Tea Forte, One Savvy Life—also reported through testimonials shared by Amazon that they had a record Cyber Monday. AncestryDNA, for example, sold “700 percent more kits in one day,” whatever that means.
