5 Ways Amazon Crushed It Over the Holiday Weekend
Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) growth story has been called into question recently. Shares were slammed after the company's third-quarter earnings release in October -- and the stock has continued to fall. The Street was disappointed in the company's guidance for significantly slower revenue growth in Q4.
Of course, this disappointment was more a function of high expectations than poor performance. The pace of growth is still significant, with third-quarter revenue rising 29% year over year.
By the looks of it, droves of customers continue to turn to Amazon for their shopping; the company just put another record shopping weekend under its belt during the Turkey 5, or the five shopping days starting with Thanksgiving and continuing through Cyber Monday.
Here are five takeaways from Amazon's Turkey 5.
Echo Dot. Image source: Amazon.com.
1. Cyber Monday was Amazon's biggest shopping day
Amazon said Cyber Monday, specifically, was the company's biggest shopping day ever.
This means sales beat both Amazon's record Cyber Monday last year and its Prime Day shopping event this summer, which Amazon said boasted higher sales than Cyber Monday in 2017.
2. Amazon sold a record number of Amazon devices
Over the shopping weekend, sales of Amazon devices hit a record high, according to the company. "Millions of devices" were sold worldwide, the press release about the shopping weekend said.
Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise that demand for these products was high. The company announced its biggest lineup ever of new Amazon devices in September, including new versions of its Echo Dot, Echo Plus, and Echo Show, among others.
3. The new Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon
It was the best holiday weekend ever for Echo devices, Amazon said, "with millions sold worldwide." The third-generation Echo Dot did particularly well, coming in as Amazon's best-selling product globally -- even when including products from all manufacturers and in all categories.
This builds on the product's success last Cyber Monday, when Amazon's second-generation Echo Dot was the company's best-selling item.
4. Customers ordered over 180 million items
Amazon customers ordered more than 180 million items during the Turkey 5. Unfortunately, Amazon didn't provide a comparable figure in the year-ago quarter. But Amazon did say small and medium-sized sized businesses saw combined sales rise 20% year over year on Black Friday, specifically.
5. Smart-security products had a good weekend
Smart-security device makers Ring and Blink -- both owned by Amazon -- saw sales more than double over the holiday weekend compared to the same weekend last year. The two brands' momentum suggests Amazon's acquisitions of these smart-security companies are paying off.
Based on these takeaways, Amazon seems to have enough momentum heading into the holidays to be able to meet its guidance for fourth-quarter net sales to rise 10% to 20% year over year.
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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Daniel Sparks has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
