Online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) had another record holiday season, posting big numbers of shoppers and Amazon Prime members. During one week alone this holiday season, more than 4 million people started free trials of Amazon Prime or began paid memberships to take advantage of free two-day, one-day and same-day shipping and ‘ultra-fast’ one-hour and two-hour Prime Now delivery.

‘Since Day One we have obsessed over what we believe our customers care about – incredible deals and low prices, fast and free shipping, and a wide selection of top products – and we continue to provide all three, all the time,’ said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer in a press release. ‘We’re excited that people continued to join Prime this holiday, to take advantage of more fast and free shipping options plus new convenient delivery like Amazon Key, as well as early access to Lightning Deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows and movies, including Prime Originals and more.’

‘Thank you to the millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees all around the world who made this holiday better than ever before. We look forward to another great year ahead,’ Wilke added.

Other highlights for the holiday season included:

• Prime members shopped more than 100,000 Lightning Deals on Amazon.com with Prime Early Access.
• Customers around the world shopped from a selection of hundreds of millions of products.
• Alexa-powered Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were the #1 and #2 top-selling products across all categories.
• Millions of Prime members did their holiday shopping with the help of voice-activated Alexa.
• The recipe for chocolate chip cookies was the most requested recipe via Amazon devices. The most requested holiday song was ‘Jingle Bells.’
• Alexa customers turned on their holiday lights more than a million times this season.
• Music listening time on Alexa was three times higher this holiday season than last.
• Amazon.com customers purchased enough TVs to create nearly 2,500 towers the size of the Space Needle in Seattle.
• In North America and Europe, Amazon associates at 10 fulfillment centers shipped more than 1 million packages in a single day.
• The peak day for customer fulfillment was December 19, 2017.
• In 2017, Amazon increased the size of its fulfillment and shipping network by more than 30 percent of square footage worldwide.
• In the United States, more than 6,000 Amazon trailers and 32 Amazon Air planes helped move holiday orders to customers this holiday season.
• Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Amazon Air carried enough packages to equal over a billion Echo Dots.
• The final order of the holiday season was delivered at 11:58 p.m. on Christmas Eve to a home in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Mobile shopping using the Amazon App increased by close to 70 percent this holiday season.
• More than 1,400 electronics products were ordered per second on a mobile device this season.
• As part of its ‘Delivering Smiles’ holiday tour, Amazon’s Treasure Truck fleet made special deliveries in more than 30 communities to donate thousands of STEM toys, books, devices and household necessities to women, children and families in need.
• The most watched Amazon Channel subscriptions this holiday season were HBO, Showtime and STARZ.
• The most watched Amazon Original movie this holiday season was The Big Sick.
• Amazon.com customers bought enough Instant Pot pressure cookers to make more than 9 million bowls of chili at once.
• Whole Foods Market sold over 500,000 pounds of sweet treats at the cookie bars in U.S. stores, enough to feed Santa more than 6 million cookies for his Christmas Eve trip around the world.

Insider Take:

Another record holiday season for Amazon is not a surprise. Jeff Bezos and company really have customer service nailed, including everything from pricing and shipping to selection and special deals. And Prime keeps getting better…just when I don’t think they could possibly add more products or services at the same price point, they do.

This time they’ve added one-hour and two-hour Prime Now delivery in even more locations. This is perfect for consumers and businesses, but particularly for procrastinators. Did you forget that Aunt Martha was coming for the holidays this year? No problem! With Amazon’s same-day and one- and two-hour shipping options, you can have a gift delivered before she arrives, and no one will be the wiser. Personally,Amazon has made my holiday shopping infinitely easier and, because there is an Amazon fulfillment center in my hometown, I can still say I shopped ‘local.’