Amazon Prime breaks billion-item barrier this holiday season

Amazon shipped more than 1 billion items through its Amazon Prime membership program this holiday season, setting a company record and underscoring how powerful the e-tail juggernaut has become in the retail sector.

The e-commerce giant also noted that more than 72 percent of its customers worldwide made their purchases through mobile devices. While online traffic reached an all-time high on Dec. 19, Amazon said Dec. 23 was the biggest day ever for Prime Now deliveries.

Amazon has not officially released its Prime data from this holiday season, but during the 2015 season, more than 3 million people signed up during the week prior to Christmas. According to the most recent estimate by financial services firm Cowen and Co., more than 50 million U.S. households were subscribed to Prime as of November, 2016. Excluding international shipments, that works out to about 20 items ordered per account over the latest holiday season.

Business was brisk enough that Amazon struggled to meet demand for its hottest items, such as the Amazon Echo. “Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock,” said Jeff Wilke, chief executive of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer division.

“Prime customers are spending twice as much as other consumers using Amazon and helping to fuel rapid revenue growth that few retailers with only a fraction of Amazon’s revenues are able to generate,” wrote Retail Metrics President Ken Perkins, in a note predating the Christmas peak.

While Amazon marches towards world domination, Bezos and Co. are making sure the company’s “soft side” gets some press as well, announcing a new program to make donations to Goodwill a whole lot easier. Under the new Give Back program, used e-commerce boxes from Amazon can now be filled with donations, which the company will ship to Goodwill free of charge.

Admit it – you weren’t going to wear that sweater anyway. And it doesn’t, um… complement your eyes.