Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event generated more than $12 billion in sales, according to third-party estimates. The retailer hosted the popular shopping event in the US and more than 15 other countries around the world on July 13-15. It was the first Prime Day event under new CEO Andy Jassy, who took over from Jeff Bezos last year after the Amazon founder stepped down.
The company was upbeat about its Prime Day results, saying it was the “best ever,” citing $1.7 billion in users worldwide. Amazon claims to have sold more than 300 million items during those sales, but does not disclose revenue figures.
It also noted that it sold “more devices than any other Prime Day,” but declined to specify any number. The firm said shoppers bought more than $3 billion worth of merchandise on more than 100 million items from small businesses during the two-day event.
For weeks leading up to Prime Day, Amazon relied on influencers to drive QVC-style live video shopping sales. The company has partnered with celebrities such as TikTok creators Joe and Frank Mele, The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Portia Williams, Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause, comedian Kevin Hart and Australian model Miranda Kerr. The company said those live streams generated more than 100 million views, but did not highlight how many sales they generated.
A report from The Information paints a different picture: It said some videos by some of its top influencers failed to attract more than 4,000 live viewers. Amazon isn’t the only one struggling with live commerce. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that TikTok was scaling back its plans to shop live video in the US and Europe.
After this story was published, Amazon reached out to clarify that a bug in their system was limiting the number of live streaming users.
“We discovered an error in our reporting of concurrent views that resulted in the live stream badge being incorrectly limited to 3,700 views. In fact, our best Amazon Live Prime Day stream peaked at 57,000 concurrent views,” a company spokesperson said.
Amazon does not comment on revenue or sales figures recorded during Prime Day or through Amazon Live experiences.
Image Credits: Amazon
Since Amazon doesn’t disclose its Prime Day sales, we have to rely on analysts and third-party data to paint a picture of how sales have fared on the event.
Analysts estimated that Amazon grossed between $12.09 billion and $12.59 billion in Prime Day sales worldwide. It’s important to note that some countries like India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates are yet to host Prime Day sales.
In addition, a Salesforce report noted that global sales for retailers selling goods on their own sites rose 8% year-over-year for the Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week of July. But sales figures for non-Amazon sites worldwide were down 12% compared to Prime Day 2021.
As usual, major US-based retailers took advantage of Amazon’s Prime Day to offer their own discounts, encouraging consumers to splash out more in an inflation-driven market that has seen prices on various items soar recently.
A study by the Adobe Digital Economy Index said total U.S. online spending for online retailers reached $11.9 billion — an 8 percent increase from last year, when $11 billion was spent. The second day of Prime Day sales is said to have generated more than $5.9 billion, registering a 9.2% increase over last year’s second day, which generated $5.4 billion.
“With the second Prime Day also seeing strong profits, retailers were able to generate an estimated $12 billion in online spending during the two-day event. It’s clear that consumers are incredibly price conscious, and it will be important for retailers to use pricing effectively to unlock new growth potential online,” said Pat Brown, vice president of Adobe.
In addition, data group Numerator released its own research, based on nearly 59,000 Prime Day orders and a survey of more than 4,800 shoppers, that found the average order size rose from $44.75 last year to $52.26 on Prime sales Day. It noted that 65% of shoppers who made purchases during the two days spent the same amount or less than last year.
The firm’s research highlighted some numbers that suggest Amazon’s influence on Prime Day sales may have waned a bit. 24% of shoppers made purchases from another retailer compared to 20% last year; 44% of people only browse Amazon this year compared to 52% last year; and 34% of people checked prices at other retailers before making a purchase, compared to 33% of people last year.
Image credits: Counter (opens in new window)
These surveys show that inflation affected Prime Day sales and retailers may not have seen a big boost in sales compared to last year.
Amazon has had a rough year as its stock prices have fallen from roughly $181 a year ago to $110 at the time of writing. It’s important for the company to drive sales, so much so that it may hold another Prime Day later this year. This year, company employees also raised questions about workplace safety and wages during Prime Day sales.
July 17, 10:30 am IST: Updated the story with Amazon’s comment on live streaming user count.
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