Amazon had its biggest Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend on Wednesday, aided by a record number of consumers looking for deals online amid high inflation.
The e-commerce company doesn't reveal how much it earns during its sales events, and it doesn't usually reveal its overall revenue from the weekend. In a news release, it said that independent businesses that sell on its site generated more than $1 billion in sales.
A record 196.7 million people shopped online and in stores during the five-day shopping period that stretched from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, 17 million more than last year, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group.
It said consumers spent an average of $325 on holiday-related purchases during the weekend, up from $301 last year.
NRF and other retail tracking groups have stated that higher demand is also driving the growth, even though higher prices on products might contribute to some of the boost.
Budget-conscious shoppers are hungry for deals, so higher demand could signal that they're hungry for deals. More consumers are using buy now and purchasing items on credit cards to pay later services that don't carry late fees, because of the fact that spending has gone up.