Amazon says sellers racked up more than $4.8 billion in sales over weekend

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday independent businesses selling on its platform crossed $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, an increase of more than 60% from a year earlier.
In its first indication of performance for the year’s peak online shopping days, Amazon said more than 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide had surpassed $100,000 in sales this holiday season to date. (https://bit.ly/2JePBBn)
The Seattle-based company did not, however, give a breakdown of U.S. sales or its own numbers for the weekend, nor for either of the two big shopping days, saying only that the holiday season overall had been its biggest ever.
Latest industry estimates overnight showed Cyber Monday on course to be the biggest online shopping day ever for the United States, garnering up to $11.4 billion as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted consumers to stay at home and turn to the internet for their holiday shopping needs.
The robust performance comes despite nearly two months of offers since Amazon held its Prime Day sales event in October, with retailers seeking to recoup business lost during this year’s coronavirus-driven closures of malls and stores.
Meanwhile, Ottawa, Canada-based Shopify Inc said on Tuesday total Thanksgiving weekend sales soared 76% to $5.1 billion, beating the previous record of more than $2.9 billion by Saturday evening.
“The record sales … demonstrate the power of the independent and direct-to-consumer businesses,” Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said.
Estimates from Adobe Analytics showed this year’s conclusion to Thanksgiving weekend sales would come in between $10.8 billion and $11.4 billion.
While that was down from an earlier estimate of as much as $12.7 billion, it still easily surpasses this year’s Black Friday figure of $9 billion, the strongest online sales result for the day ever, as well as last year’s Cyber Monday total of $9.4 billion.
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla and Patrick Graham in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Praveen Paramasivam; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Arun Koyyur)
More Top Stories
ANOTHER LEFT-WING INSURRECTION: Washington city’s mayor rushed to safety after rioters stormed City Hall
Grassley Wants To Know How DOJ Found ‘No Wrongdoing’ In Michael Flynn Leak Probe
Sen. Chuck Grassley on Friday called on the Justice Department to explain its decision to close an investigation into leaks of information about former national …
read moreThe Numbers Are In: Cuomo’s Lockdowns Cost New York 1 Million Jobs
ICE Agents Ordered to Free All Illegal Aliens in Custody: ‘Release Them All’
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, tasked with enforcing federal immigration law, are being instructed to free all detainees in their custody, as President Joe …
read moreMicrosoft Patent Approved For AI Tech Impersonating Deceased Individuals
Microsoft has moved forward with a patent to create chatbots capable of mimicking the personality of a specific person.
read moreCDC Quietly Removes Website Headline Claiming “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism”
Government makes change after failing to provide adequate evidence in court to support their claim
read more