Key learnings from Amazon’s 2022 holiday shopping season
February 1, 2023
Want to learn about advertising for shopping events? See more in our complete guide to holiday marketing.
Following the biggest Prime Day event ever, customers continued to enjoy shopping and purchased a record number of products from the Amazon store over the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday in 2022, when compared to previous Thanksgiving holiday weekends. The unofficial start of the holiday shopping season began in October, and it was a standout shopping weekend during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal events for Amazon customers, as well as a huge holiday shopping season overall.
US Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend best-selling items
Amazon had its biggest Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend ever, with customers around the world purchasing hundreds of millions of products between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.1 Additionally, customers generated more than $1 billion in sales for small businesses in the US.2
Some of the best-selling categories over the Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend were Home, Fashion, Toys, Beauty, and Amazon devices.3
The best-selling items on Amazon were the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, and Apple AirPods. Other top-selling items included Hasbro Gaming CONNECT 4, Burt’s Bees Christmas Gifts, apparel from Champion, apparel and shoes from New Balance, the Amazon smart plug, Echo Show, and Nintendo Switch. Best-selling items from small businesses included games like What Do You Meme? Family Edition, Taco vs. Burrito—The Strategic Family Friendly Card Game, and Kids Against Maturity: Card Game for Kids and Families. Customers also bought millions of Amazon devices, including Echo, Ring, Blink, Kindle, and Fire TV products.4
Worldwide holiday season shopping
The shopping didn’t stop there. Customers purchased more items than ever from Amazon’s selling partners—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses—for a record-breaking holiday season for Amazon.5 Products from third-party sellers represented almost 60% of the units sold in the Amazon store.6 Amazon customers purchased nearly half a billion items from small businesses in the US alone during the holiday season.7 Some of the trending small-business categories included Home, Beauty, Kitchen, Toys, and Apparel.
How brands can continue holiday success
Online shopping continues to grow as a popular way for customers to do their shopping—digital retail in the US accounted for 21.6% of total retail sales, up from 20.9% in 2021, according to a Mastercard SpendingPulse report.8 After the holidays, think about how to re-engage holiday customers by observing holiday shopping insights that could indicate interest in the goods that customers will be interested in next. Continuing to advertise to shoppers who took advantage of holiday promotions is a great way to continue building customer loyalty.
The upcoming holidays this year bring more opportunities for shopping campaigns to continue to succeed. Upcoming events on the retail holiday calendar in the US include Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day, and Easter.