As one of the world’s biggest providers of safe shopping online, Amazon has millions of customers globally and ensures loyalty through its Prime subscription service. As the new year gets underway, the firm has published figures revealing the extent to which it has increased its reach over the past 12 months.

Around five billion products were shipped out to Prime users during 2017, representing a vast amount of goods, a lot of cash in Amazon’s pockets and an impressive achievement from a logistical perspective, according to Yahoo! Finance UK.

Interestingly, it has also managed to win people over with its own-brand tech, with the Fire TV Stick sitting at the top of the best-sellers list. This was followed in a close second by the Echo Dot smart speaker, indicating that Amazon has come a long way from the creation of the Kindle e-book reader.

The all-encompassing nature of Prime means that it is not just used for safe shopping online, but also for streaming video and music, accessing tickets to events and more besides. Further features are likely to be added for subscribers in the near future, improving the value for money it represents.

There have been questions raised about the extent to which Amazon is monopolising the online marketplace, both in its native US and in the UK. Its tax affairs and the conditions experienced by its distribution centre workers have also been scrutinised recently.

However, even with some legitimate concerns about its operations, there is no sign that this particular e-commerce behemoth is going to be dethroned any time soon. Indeed, the number of Prime subscribers is growing along with its sales, meaning that 2018 is going to be a bigger year than ever, as more consumers sign up for the suite of services.