Amazon.com Inc said on Dec 1 independent businesses selling on its platform crossed US$4.8bil 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 US$100,000 in sales this holiday season to date.

The Seattle-based company did not, however, give a breakdown of US 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 US$11.4bil 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.

Estimates from Adobe Analytics showed this year’s conclusion to Thanksgiving weekend sales would come in between US$10.8bil and US$11.4 billion .

While that was down from an earlier estimate of as much as US$12.7bil , it still easily surpasses this year’s Black Friday figure of US$9bil , the strongest online sales result for the day ever, as well as last year’s Cyber Monday total of US$9.4bil .

 - Reuters