U.S. online retail giant announces "biggest holiday" sales gain

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. online retail giant Amazon announced Tuesday that it has sold more than 1 billion items from small businesses and entrepreneurs worldwide during the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas season.

In a statement released Tuesday, Amazon said it has sold "tens of millions" of Echo devices worldwide, with Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote being the most popular products in Amazon across all categories.

It is just the day after Christmas that Amazon is celebrating its "biggest" holiday sales surge "with customers all around the world shopping at record levels."

"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, Amazon's CEO of Worldwide Consumer, in the statement.

The company's popular product, Amazon Alexa, which is a voice-based assistant software behind Amazon Echo, was the most downloaded app on Christmas Day in both Apple Store and Google Play, two virtual stores for the iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

It said it has delivered 1 million customer packages in a single day across its 10 North American and European fulfillment centers.

Over the course of one week, more than 4 million people became Prime members or started a free trail, sending the e-commerce giant's membership count to new highs, it said.

Amazon, established in 1994, is a top American electronic commerce and cloud computing company based in Seattle, Washington state on the U.S. west coast.

The tech giant is the largest Internet retailer in the world in terms of revenue and market capitalization. Enditem