Day 1 of Prime Day Sees Substantial Sales Gain for Amazon, Other Retailers
Based on Adobe Analytics data, the first day of Prime Day saw a substantial increase in online spending in the U.S., suggesting that Amazon.com is no longer the sole winner of the summer shopping holiday. Large retailers ($1 billion-plus in annual revenue) saw a 64 percent increase in sales vs. an average Monday, compared to last year’s 54 percent. Additionally, this year even niche retailers (less than $5 million in annual revenue) saw a 30 percent increase in online sales. As predicted, Prime Day is now the third time outside of the holiday season to surpass $2 billion in e-commerce spending, as it did on Labor Day 2018 and Memorial Day 2019. Here are some additional findings from Adobe Analytics regarding the first day of Prime Day:
- Successful Email Campaigns Are Key: Brands that delivered excellent email experiences saw a 50 percent lift in revenue. In comparison, those that lacked a good email strategy saw only a 17 percent lift. Overall, email campaigns represented a 7.6 percent higher share of revenue.
- All Retailers Are Seeing an Influx of Online Traffic: The first day of Prime Day saw an increase in visits to online retailers across the board, which accounts for 66 percent of the lift in revenue. Twenty-seven percent of the lift can be attributed to an increase in conversion, and 7 percent due to bigger basket sizes.
- Retailers With Physical Locations Get an Edge: Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) has become a go-to option for consumers, especially during key shopping periods. While consumers typically use BOPIS for less-expensive items, Prime Day brought BOPIS average order values up 12 percent, from $115 to $131.
Total Retail's Take: Amazon's competitors — which at this point essentially includes any business selling products online — are enjoying a nice bump in sales during an otherwise slow period in the retail calendar thanks to the online retail giant's Prime Day event. These retailers, including Walmart, Target, eBay, Macy's, Best Buy and others, are the beneficiaries of heightened consumer awareness about the deals that are available during the two-day event, and are successfully stealing some of the thunder from their biggest nemesis, Amazon. However, one shouldn't feel sorry for Amazon. The company reported that its sellers worldwide on Monday had the biggest 24-hour sales day in Amazon's history.
