
This past year, Amazon expanded Prime shipping benefits to include free one-day and same-day shipping for millions of items. According to M Science domestic sales indicators, it seems holiday procrastinators rejoiced in this valuable addition to their Prime accounts.
By Amazon's own accounts, the last holiday delivery was made at 11:59 PM on Christmas Eve, and over 100 million packages from third-party sellers were delivered with free one-day shipping this holiday season. M Science analysis found last minute sales on Amazon appeared to grow significantly between 2018 and 2019, as shoppers took advantage of expedited shipping being included in their Prime membership.

Although M Science analysis found that Prime members still appear to have material value to Amazon after they churn, it remains hard to underestimate the overall importance of the service to the marketplace side of Amazon's business.
These last-minute Christmas sales show the power that expanded Prime benefits can have to drive marketplace traffic above and beyond the average shopper and outside seasonal norms. While significant, this pre-Christmas bump still pales in comparison to Cyber Monday 2019, which Amazon reports to be the biggest single shopping day in their history.
For all the latest consumer and e-commerce analysis and estimates, please reach out to insights@mscience.com to stay up to date on company- and industry-level trends.