Amazon’s annual two-day Prime Day sale began on July 11 and early data shows sales rose but fell short of estimates.

Amazon Ranks #3 in New Digital Commerce 360 2023 Global Online Marketplaces Reportand the annual Prime Day sale attracts millions of shoppers.

Spend and order size increased slightly

July 11 was the biggest e-commerce day of 2023 so far, according to Adobe Analytics data of one trillion visits to US retail sites and 100 million SKUs. Adobe says US consumers spent $6.4 billion on the first day of the sale, up 5.96% year-over-year. This is only slightly lower growth than in 2022, which was up 6.1% from 2021, based on previous Adobe data.

Sales growth fell short of Adobe’s forecast of 9.5%.

“Prime Day has become one of the biggest e-commerce moments of the year as consumers latch onto deep discounts from a number of different retailers,” said Vivek Pandya, principal analyst at Adobe Digital Insights. Vivek Pandya, in a statement. “Record spending so far shows us that consumers are tapping into their domestic bargain hunters, sourcing into specific categories such as electronics and apparel, while discounts remain steep.”

The average order on the first day of Prime Day was $56.64, according to data research firm Numerator. This represents an increase of approximately 6.5% from $53.14 for the same period in 2022. The average household of Prime Day shoppers spent $134 on the first day of the sale, by numerator, 20% of households spending more than $200.

Consumers focused on appliances, household products and groceries

Appliances led the day, with sales up 37% from the June daily average, Adobe found. Sales of toys, clothing and electronics increased by 27%, 26% and 12% respectively.

Two of the top five products on July 11 were household and grocery products, Numerator found. One Amazon product made the top five list: the Amazon Fire TV Stick. This marks a change from previous Prime Days. In 2022, three of the top five items were Amazon-branded, and all five were in 2021, according to Numerator.

According to Numerator’s survey of Prime shoppers, home goods made up the top category, with 27% of respondents saying they’ve made such purchases. It was closely followed by basic necessities (26%) and clothing and footwear (25%). 21% of consumers said they bought electronics and 20% bought beauty products.

Consumers looked at retailers beyond Amazon

Some of Amazon’s biggest competitors held online sales during Prime Day, and many savvy customers shopped around between retailers. 65% of buyers surveyed told Numerator they plan to make more sales. Target (37%), Walmart (32%) and Costco (20%) were the most popular competitors. More than a third of shoppers, 35%, had no intention of looking beyond Amazon.

However, these competitors have not experienced the same growth as Amazon. Non-Amazon online sales in the first half of the day were down 10% year over year, according to tech firm Salesforce Inc. Electronics, footwear and furniture were the top categories at non-Amazon retailers during the first half of the day.

Some discounts were down, but consumers didn’t seem to care

The largest July 11 discounts at Amazon were in electronics (16%), toys (15%), apparel (13%) and computers (10%), according to Adobe. The electronics were available at a much higher price than the 6% Adobe recorded in 2022. Computers were also discounted slightly more than last year, down from 8% off regular prices in 2022.

Prime members were largely satisfied with these discounts, according to the Numerator survey. 68% said they were extremely or very satisfied with the deals, and 67% felt the deals so far were better or the same as last year. Only 15% said 2023 was worse than 2022, while 19% were unsure.

Discounts weren’t as promising for shoppers at Amazon’s competitors. The average price discount at non-Amazon retailers is 18%, down 17% from 2022, according to Salesforce. Average prices are up 6% from a year ago, a sign of continued inflation, according to Salesforce.

Better sales could still come, however.

“With weak online sales reflecting lackluster online discounts, consumers in the United States should not despair. We expect retailers to increase discounts before Prime Day ends,” said Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail at Salesforce, in a statement.

However, not all prices are discounted on Prime Day. Last year, Amazon merchants increased prices by 3% or more on 13.72% of the top 10,000 items on the Amazon Marketplace, according to a report from Noogata, an artificial intelligence data analytics platform for Amazon sellers.

Early sales may have eaten away at Prime Day

Many other retailers started sales before Amazon’s official launch.

“Based on early data from Prime Day in the U.S., it appears retailers beat Amazon in launching promotions last week,” Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail at Salesforce, said in a statement. .

More retailers ran 4th of July promotions than offered sitewide sales to compete with Amazon’s Prime Days on Tuesday, according to a Digital Commerce 360 ​​Top 1000 analysis.

Amazon held on pre-Prime Day sales too. Crocs were the top-selling item on Amazon during the week of June 26 to July 2, followed by the Kindle Paperwhite and Apple Airpods, according to a web traffic measurement company. Similarweb Ltd.

From July 1 to July 8, consumers sought “portable air conditioners” and “e-bike” more than any other term on Amazon. Crocs also remained popular, according to Similarweb. Searches for “Roku” and “TV” dominated the electronics category, and Nintendo Switch was the most searched video game term.

Are you listed in our database?

Submit your data with this quick survey and we’ll see where you rank in our next ranking update.

Register

Stay up to date with the latest developments in the e-commerce industry. Sign up for a free subscription to Digital Commerce 360 ​​Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 ​​posts news content.

Favorite