Amazon reported that 10 million new members have signed up for the company's Prime service over the holiday season.
The company revealed the staggering number in its yearly post-Christmas debriefing session, where Amazon also discussed the planned expansion of its one-hour delivery service, mobile-based shopping and the popularity of its Fire TV.
The Prime service, which charges customers an annual membership fee of $99, grants subscribers the privilege of guaranteed two-day shipping. This is most likely one of the reasons why the service attracted millions of new subscribers, as last-minute shopping sprees will be ensured to get to customers and their loved ones right in time for Christmas.
However, in the debriefing, the Prime service is not the only highlight that Amazon is touting. The company also discussed other perks of being a Prime member, such as users with Kindle gaining access to rentals of e-books and videos. The Amazon Now delivery service that gets products to the consumer in just one hour was also highlighted.
The Amazon Now delivery service made its debut last week, in the city of Manhattan.
Online retail rival eBay shut down its Now delivery service this year, and it seems that Amazon has taken over the feature, with the company announcing plans of expanding Amazon Now next year.
"We are working hard to make Prime even better and expanding the recently launched Prime Now to additional cities in 2015," said Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, in a press release, though he did not specify the exact cities that the service will be introduced to.
Bezos added that customers ordered over 10 times as many products with Amazon Now for the holiday shopping season of this year, compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Amazon also revealed the importance of mobile-based shopping to the company, as almost 60 percent of the company's customers went shopping on the retail giant through a mobile device. Cyber Monday was again the peak day for mobile shopping on Amazon.
With regards to the gift lists of its customers, Amazon revealed that among the top wished-for items on the website include Amazon's own Fire TV Stick, Fire HD 7 and Fire HD 6. In addition, Amazon Fire TV turned out to be the best-selling streaming media box, with the Fire TV Stick becoming the fastest-selling device by Amazon ever.
Amazon customers can try out the Prime service for free with a 30-day trial before choosing on whether to continue the subscription into a paying one or not.
