Amazon Prime Day Surpasses $5.6B in 24 Hours, Biggest Online Spending Day in 2021
Data from Adobe shows sales during the first 24 hours of Amazon Prime Day 2021 surpassed $5.6 billion, representing 8.7 percent growth year-over-year, reports CNBC. Monday, the first day of the online event, marked the biggest day for online spending to date in 2021, according to an index tracked by Adobe Analytics, which looks at more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites and over 100 million items across 18 product categories.
According to data from Adobe, large retailers that bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue saw a 28 percent increase in online sales, while smaller retailers with annual revenue of less than $10 million also experienced a sizable 22 percent lift. Average order value increased by 2.6 percent on Monday as the average online basket spend rose to $180 from $175 in the first 20 days of June. Popular product categories included appliances and electronics, while less popular categories were musical instruments, jewelry, and arts and crafts materials.
Numerator's live Amazon Prime Day tracker shows that more than nine in 10 Prime Day shoppers said they were Amazon Prime members. The majority (83 percent) had joined Prime pre-COVID (before March 1, 2020), and 10 percent said they joined Prime after the start of the pandemic. Two percent of these new pandemic Prime members joined during the first day of the Prime Day event.
Total Retail's Take: Amazon's surge in sales during the first 24 hours of its 2021 Prime Day event provides a positive outlook for other businesses that have been offering competing markdowns this week, including Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Kohl’s. In previous years, Amazon's push for consumers to shop online during its megasale has increasingly spilled over into other online retailers as consumers hunt for deals. Numerator data shows that more than 45 percent of Prime Day shoppers considered retailers other than Amazon for their purchases, with a quarter considering Walmart, followed by Target, club retailers, Best Buy, grocery retailers, or department stores.
“Overall, the first day of Prime Day successfully accelerated spending momentum for U.S. e-commerce to new heights, in an online retail environment that's already experiencing elevated level of growth due to the pandemic,” said Jason Woosley, vice president of commerce product and platform at Adobe.
Each iteration of Prime Day seems to get bigger. Last year’s Prime Day shopping extravaganza, which occurred in October instead of July after the pandemic forced a delay, experienced sales increase of 36 percent compared to Prime Day 2019, according to data from Edison Trends. This year is tracking for similar YoY growth.
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Kristina Stidham is the digital content director at Total Retail and sister brands Women in Retail Leadership Circle and Women Leading Travel & Hospitality at NAPCO Media. She is passionate about digital media and handles video, podcast and virtual event production for all brands. You can often find her at WIRLC, TR, WLT&H or industry events with her camera and podcasting equipment—or at home on Zoom—recording interviews with thought leaders and business executives.
Kristina holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Production from the Temple University Klein College of Media and Communication in Philadelphia. Go Owls! When she's not in the office, she loves to go on long walks, sing around the house, hangout with her family and two pet guinea pigs, and travel to new places.
