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NEW YORK — Amazon.com reported record sales for its Prime Day shopping event that spanned July 11 and July 12. The first day, according to Amazon, marked the highest daily sales yet achieved by the online retailing giant.
“The first day of Prime Day was the largest sales day in Amazon’s history, and Prime members saved more this year than any other Prime Day Event,” said Doug Herrington, chief executive officer of Amazon Stores. “Prime is an incredible value, and we’re proud to offer additional value for members through exclusive deals events like Prime Day.”
Amazon did not release total sales figures, but according to Adobe Analytics, Prime members spent $12.7 billion during the event, a 6.1% increase year over year. On the first day, sales rose nearly 6% to $6.4 billion, then gained 6.4% to $6.3 billion on July 12, according to Adobe.
According to Numerator, the average transaction this year was $54.05, up from $52.26 last year. Based on a survey of Prime Day purchases from 21,306 households, Numerator estimated that about 58% of orders placed during the event were for items priced under $20.
Amazon did report that shoppers purchased more than 375 million items, up from 300 million sold last year. The company also stated that it offered more deals than on any past Prime Day event, with home, fashion and beauty among the top-selling deal categories. The company claimed that Prime members saved a record $2.5 billion.
Indeed, Adobe Analytics concluded that shoppers were attracted by steep discounts in such categories as electronics (14% off listed price), apparel (12%) and toys (12%). Home/furniture also performed well (9% off), together with computers (8%), appliances (7%), sporting goods (6%) and televisions (5%).
Not surprisingly, several of the same categories were among the leading sellers during the event, including appliances (up 45% compared to average daily sales in June), electronics (18%) and apparel (17%). Sales of household supplies, meanwhile, soared 28% while stationery/office supplies skyrocketed 76%, fueled in part by early back-to-school sales.
Digital Commerce 360, meanwhile, estimates that Prime Day sales climbed 6.7% to $12.9 billion globally, and notes that sales growth slowed this year. Last year, Prime Day sales gained 8.1% to $12.09 billion, according to Digital Commerce 360 data analysis.
“Amazon Prime Day seems to have become a consumer nice-to-have, not a must-have,” says Katie Thomas, leader of the Kearney Consumer Institute, an internal think tank at global consulting firm Kearney. “Shoppers told the Kearney Consumer Institute that Black Friday had the best deals and sales (46% of those polled), followed by brand/store-specific sales (29%), and lastly Prime Day (25%). This brings about broader questions around whether brands need competing sales that overlap with Amazon Prime Day, or whether they benefit the most from focusing on their own events.”
Other retailers who staged their own discount events around Prime Day saw customer traffic increases that fell short of last year’s results. In its analysis of Similarweb traffic data, for example, Digital Commerce 360 found that Target Corp., which experienced a 42.3% leap in traffic over a control period two weeks before Prime Day last year, saw traffic grow just 26.9% this year. Similarly, Costco Wholesale Corp., which recorded a 24.6% rise in traffic in 2022, achieved a 16.7% increase this year.
Other insights yielded by Adobe Analytics included the growing acceptance of mobile shopping for Prime Day purchases. For instance, Smartphones generated nearly half (46.5%) of online sales, up from 43.7% in 2022. Adobe concludes that the increase reflects greater comfort with shopping on smaller screens — as well perhaps, as indicating more last-minute impulse shopping.
