- Exclusive data shared with Fortune shows Amazon Prime shoppers’ purchases in 2024 followed habitual seasonal and social cycles, with essentials and trending items shifting throughout the year based on holidays, social-media influence, and life milestones. Despite economic uncertainty, Prime members increasingly sought value and convenience, driving a 50% year-over-year increase in same- or next-day delivery of household essentials and groceries.
When you look through your Amazon Prime purchase history, it may seem like a fairly random jumble of items: meat thermometers, solar-powered turtle statues, eggs, and insulated coffee cups.
But it turns out consumers are actually unconsciously falling into familiar cycles of shopping inspired by the season, social media, or upcoming milestones—or, as Amazon Prime’s vice president Jamil Ghani describes it, the “rhythm of life.”
In data shared exclusively with Fortune, Amazon revealed the items which were purchased—in their millions—most frequently by subscribing customers.
Overall, with storm clouds gathering over the U.S. economy, shoppers are hunting for greater value in their purchasing, said Ghani—echoing a wider trend observed by other consumer brands such as Hormel Foods and Walmart.
For Amazon, this presents an opportunity: In 2024, the Big Tech giant saw more than two billion “essentials” items delivered on same- or next-day delivery, up 50% on the year prior.
“It’s always true that Prime members are seeking value from their membership and from their shopping on Amazon.com, but that is even more so true today than ever before,” Ghani told Fortune. “We also see with the Prime program that it’s a bit of a flight to safety in economic uncertain times because Prime just delivers such a disproportionate value.”
Here’s what Amazon shoppers were buying en masse in each month of 2024, and what likely inspired the purchases.
Winter purchases
The start of the next calendar year came—perhaps unsurprisingly—with a flood of interest in items which helps customers stick to New Years’ resolutions.
Trending purchases included kitchen scales and vegetable choppers to support healthy eating, as well as the ‘Atomic Habits’ book by James Clear. Elsewhere, humidifiers, thermometers, and nasal-irrigation systems were purchased by those struggling with colds or flus.
On the grocery side—a major driver of Amazon Prime purchases—popular items included bananas, apples, celery, hand warmers, and moisturizing cream, as well as anti-dandruff shampoo.
Standout purchases in February included strawberries for Valentine’s Day and a continued focus on health and wellness, such as Vitamin D supplements and collagen powders.
Ghani said he found the data collected for Fortune “super intriguing,” adding he sees the “rhythm of life” in the purchases: “It’s what inspires us to apply technology, operations and infrastructure to make sure we can meet those needs in the moment, whether it’s at four hours’ time scale or one or two days.”
In March, with Easter around the corner, trending purchases included a crock pot for hosting as well as candy like gummy clusters and ring lollipops. Spring-cleaning buys also began with shoppers purchasing portable carpet cleaners, air purifiers, and surface steam cleaners.
Another factor intensifying purchasing behaviors is social media, with TikTok influencers sharing their top buys in Amazon storefronts—often promoting Prime deals or swift delivery.
“Over the last many years, the cycle times on product trends is higher,” Ghani—named as one of the 25 most powerful rising executives in the Fortune 500—explained. “It’s concentrated in certain categories more so than others [where] there are evergreen needs—groceries is a great example.”
Ghani added most families purchase the staples of milk, eggs, and bread, for example, drawing 150 million U.S. grocery shoppers a year with a growing interest in fresh and perishable items.
Wider interest trends overlay the basics, he added: “Those are staples in addition to the trend-based things where we obviously work really hard to make sure that those brands and items are in our store as quickly as possible to meet the needs of customers—wherever they might get that influence.”
Spring purchases
With many people preparing for summer and the weather getting warmer, nutrition-rich foods and health-related buys ramped up in April. Popular groceries included avocados, bags of salad, and a ready-made chicken Caesar salad, while trending items included exercise steppers and personal blenders.
In May, as families began to spend more time outside and prepare their gardens for the summer, outdoor purchases gained popularity. Trending items included garden hoses, lawn- and garden-pressurized sprayers, and a solar-powered garden statue of a turtle.
Similarly, as students began graduating college in May, moving-out buys were aplenty, such as extra large packing bags, compact irons, and the famous Dr. Seuss book for grads, ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go.’
In June, barbecue foods and accessories began rising up shopping lists including cucumbers, mangoes, and water-resistant sunscreen as well as grill-cleaning brushes and digital meat thermometers.
And while spending is consistent and in some cases increasing, the “reality is that customers are always looking for value,” Ghani added. “The average consumer, the average Prime member, [what] they’re really looking at is: ‘Is the item I want at a price that I like, delivered with the convenience and the speed that I like?’
“The reality is that members are seeking that value regardless of what the drivers are of the pricing … so we’re going to have the sharpest prices available in the marketplace regardless of what’s going on underneath.”
Summer purchases
With kids off to college in July, stationery and dorm equipment were among trending items including wireless printers, scanners and copiers, drawer organizers, and hair dryers.
With consumers also preparing for outdoors or overseas adventures, purchases also included water-filtration devices, compact first-aid kits, and Bluetooth speakers.
August was all about preparing for the return to school, with popular grocery items including colored pencils, ring binders, index cards, as well as rulers, notebooks, and calculators.
In September, travel was still a priority for many, with trending items including GPS trackers and keychain fobs, as well as European plug adapters.
Fall purchases
As fall rolled around, fresh fruit and vegetables continued to dominate in the groceries category while trending items changed to reflect seasonal celebrations. In October, Halloween led to a rise in modeling putty and camera memory cards, while cooler weather led to a rise in space heaters.
As consumers got ready for Christmas, their focus shifted to gifting and holiday hosting, buying gift wrap cutters, mini strings of lights, sensory squeeze toys, and emergency fire blankets.
The story was the same in December, when trending items included lip balm, mascara, and insulated tumblers for holiday gifting, as well as party games and a poinsettia building block set.
Ghani said ultimately he has two levers to get customers coming back in 2025 and beyond: Speed and price. He intends to improve both, telling Fortune: “Millions of items might be relevant for the fastest speeds but out of the universe of 300 million items that members have included with free shipping in their membership, we need to get faster and faster.
“Our job is to reduce our own cost to serve because the less expensive it is for us to deliver a unit, manage that unit, and our overall operations, the more selection we can bring into our store … sustainably and profitably.”
As a result, “we’re able to bring more of this low average selling price selection—which disproportionately tends to be household essentials and groceries—which are traditionally low margin businesses and so it’s a virtuous cycle that we can get faster, we lower our cost to serve, we can bring in more selection at those speeds.”
