This Christmas break, Amazon set a new record by shipping more than

1 billion items worldwide. In the week leading up to December 25th, 3

million people signed up for Amazon Prime, more than any other

holiday season. The best-selling products overall were Amazon’s Echo

and Echo Dot, the voice-activated speakers which connect to Amazon’s

intelligent Alexa Voice Service.

Amazon’s 2016 Holiday Shopping Season RecapBy Nathan Rigby, VP Sales & Marketing at One Click Retail

When it comes to Amazon first-party (1P) sellers, brand manufacturers

like Melissa & Doug, Lego or Hasbro selling directly on Amazon.com,

the most popular gift in the month of December was the PlayStation 4

Slim video game console. With 2.5 times more sales, PS4 is really taking

the cake in the console race. This has been described as a close

competition but if this holiday season is any indication, PlayStation is

the clear winner.

Amazon 1P Sellers

1. PlayStation 4 Slim 500GB Console – Uncharted 4 Bundle

2. Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband, Black, Large

3. Xbox One S 500GB Console – Battlefield 1 Bundle

4. Instant Pot 1P-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker

5. GoPro HERO5 Black

6. Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones

7. iRobot Roomba Vacuum Cleaner

8. Anki Overdrive Starter Kit

9. Keurig Coffee Maker

10. HTC VIVE – Virtual Reality System

Top 10 Most Popular 1P Gifts for December 2016 on Amazon.com

Gadgetry was the real star of the 2016 gift-giving season, with the only

exceptions in the top 10 being two kitchen items: an Instant Pot pressure

cooker (Cyber Weekend’s darling) and a Keurig coffee maker. Video gaming

takes 3 of the top spots while Fitbit, GoPro, a Roomba and a set of Bose

headphones all secure a place. The only true “toy” on the list is a gadget as

well: the Anki Overdrive Starter Kit, a toy car set with a customizable

racetrack that, once built, can be raced on by robotic cars with one or more of

them controlled by the player via an app on their mobile device.

Let’s take a closer look at some of these numbers. The Holiday 2016 season is

defined as October to December inclusive. During this period we saw a 16%

YoY total sales increase, with December alone accounting for 45% of the

total sales. Our data is based on Year-over-Year (YoY) sales compared to the

2015 holiday season, and reflects sales of items from first-party (1P) sellers

only. High growth is defined as 40%+ growth YoY, medium as 20 to 39%, and

low as less than 20%.

Amazon.com’s top product group during the 2016 holiday season was, wait for

it, Toys, which experienced medium growth to total $1.2B+ in sales. It’s nothing

new for Toys to take the top product group spot during the holiday season, but

robotics dominating the group is something new. Sitting in 2nd place behind

Anki Overdrive is the same company’s Cozmo, the intelligent robot for kids. The

only traditional, non-computerized toy in the top 5 is the party game Watch Ya’

Mouth in 3rd place, followed by Bloxels in 4th and the Osmo Genius Kit in 5th.

Top 20 Holiday 2016 Product Group in 1P Sales

1. Toys: +24%

2. PCs: +13%

3. Books: +6%

4. Health & Personal Care: +31%

5. Home: +18%

6. Sports: +20%

7. Kitchen: +12%

8. Apparel: +32%

9. Shoes: +5%

10. Home Improvement: +32%

Top Selling Product Groups: YoY % Change11. Office Products: +26%

12. Video Games: -10%

13. Pet Products: +30%

14. Beauty: +31%

15. Electronics: +21%

16. Tools: +18%

17. Automotive: +20%

18. Outdoors: +14%

19. Lawn & Garden: +27%

20. Furniture: +46%

As you can see, Furniture is the only product group in the top 20 that

experienced high YoY growth. It is telling, however, that all but one of the

groups has grown in YoY sales on Amazon, reflecting the eCommerce giant’s

record-breaking year. Furniture was the third highest-growing group with

holiday sales topping $350M, following Luxury Beauty with 80% YoY growth

and Business, Industrial and Scientific Supplies with 54%.

In comparison, the only significantly declining product group was Home

Entertainment, which saw a 41% decrease from the 2015 holiday season.

Interestingly, despite accounting for single most popular 1P gift in Amazon’s

2016 holiday shopping season, Video Games saw an overall YoY decline of

10%, which pulled in approximately $450M in 2016 holiday sales. Other

declining groups show much smaller rates, such as Luggage, with a decrease of

only 3% still qualifying it as the third-lowest performing group.

All-in-all, the 2016 holiday shopping season was just more proof that Amazon is

winning the race, with their busiest holiday shopping season so far leaving

competitors in the dust. But now it’s time to look ahead. With continued expansions

into Australia and elsewhere, the growth of their Prime Air fleet of drones and 767s,

the introduction of Amazon Go stores in the US and the continued roll-out of private

brands, 2017 is already shaping up to be the most exciting year in Amazon history.

With 98% accuracy, OCR delivers the industry’s most accurate sales data to their brand manufacturer clients

selling on the world’s top eCommerce platforms. To get a glimpse of the unique insights One Click Retail

provides its customers, be sure to follow our weekly blog at www.oneclickretail.com/insights, and following

us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

One Click Retail (OCR) is a market leader in eCommerce data measurement, sales analytics and search optimization for brand manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia. Thanks to our proprietary sales calculations that are 98.5% accurate down to the SKU level, OCR’s accuracy is unrivaled in the marketplace. The OCR Product Suite provides 1st and 3rd party business intelligence across the 30 largest retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Staples and Home Depot. The world’s top brands, such as Procter & Gamble, Panasonic, Nestle, Hamilton Beach and HP, rely on OCR insights to drive sales and profitability across eCommerce.

Founded in 2013 by eCommerce experts from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Overstock and other leading retailers, OCR was acquired in 2016 by Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L), a UK-based international B2B media company with a focused portfolio of market-leading events and information services products.

To learn more about how OCR can provide your brand with the competitive edge in today’s ecommerce marketplace, visit www.oneclickretail.com.

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