Prime Day Results, Highlights & Commentary
Amazon Prime Day 2024 was the e-commerce giant’s biggest ever, with record sales and more items sold during the July 16-17 event than any previous Prime Day event, Amazon revealed in a July 18 statement.
Additionally, Amazon said Prime members globally saved billions on deals across every category and that a record-breaking number of customers signed up for a Prime membership in the three weeks leading up to this year’s event. Amazon accrued millions of new members worldwide.
Other event highlights from Amazon include:
- U.S. shoppers saw more deals on small business products than ever before. Independent sellers — most of which are small and medium-sized businesses — sold more than 200 million items.
- U.S. shoppers consolidated millions of orders, saving an estimated 10 million trips and lowering carbon emissions on average.
Amazon said millions of members leveraged new tools, including Rufus, the AI-powered conversational shopping assistant. Many shoppers also visited Amazon Inspire, the in-app shopping experience that helps users discover products and explore videos and images from other customers, influencers and brands.
Day 1 Data
According to omnichannel marketing platform Skai’s real-time data, advertising spend was more than five times higher than the daily average over the 30 days leading up to and on July 16. The top spending categories for advertisers were home and garden, computers and personal electronics, and beauty and personal care.
Highlights from Skai’s July 16 data:
- Cost per click (CPC) increased 58%
- Impressions saw a 4.4x increase
- Clicks saw a 3.3x increase
- Change in CPC for July 16 versus the preceding 30 day average by category included:
- Grand total: +58%
- Beauty and personal care: +74%
- Food and groceries: +63%
- Health: +51%
- Home and garden: +72%
- Business and industrial: +35%
- Hobbies and leisure: +23%
- Apparel: +59%
- Computers and consumer electronics: +46%
‘Halo Effect’ at Other Retailers & More Day 1 Takeaways
In addition, Commerce media company Criteo analyzed more than 116 million online transactions across desktops, smartphones and tablets from more than 1,300 retailers in the U.S. (aside from Amazon) during the first 24 hours of Prime Day.
The data, which Criteo shared with the Path to Purchase Institute, showed that 28% of the retailers analyzed either hosted their own sales events, or benefitted from a “halo effect” as consumers were in the mood to shop. As a result, those retailers saw an average 73% increase in online transactions on July 16, compared to the average during the seven days preceding the event.
The data also indicated:
- This year's event saw a stronger halo effect for participating retailers than last year’s event. In 2023, these same retailers and brands saw a 52% increase in online transactions (meaning that the halo effect increased nearly 20% year-over-year).
- The verticals with the highest uplifts during the first 24 hours of the event were:
- Home furnishings (+100% online transactions) with a conversion rate up 75%
- Health care (+65%)
- Consumer electronics (+57%)
- Jewelry (+54%)
- Apparel (+51%)
- Food (+47%)
- Participating mass merchants/multi specialists (all retail categories combined) were up 88%
Advice for Marketers
“During times of economic distress, sales events like Prime Day, Target Circle Week and Walmart Deal Days are music to the ears of consumers who have had to tighten their purse strings lately,” Sherry Smith, executive managing director, Americas at Criteo, told P2PI following day one of Prime Day. “While many retailers are leveraging advertising to boost revenue, [it’s] vital for retailers to continue to experiment with digital advertising channels like streaming, [connected] TV ads and retail media on Prime Day. The sales event can bring in a wealth of high-intent shoppers.”
Smith also said that retail media, which is projected to reach $150 billion in global ad spend by 2026, is key to implement throughout major sales cycles like Prime Day in particular.
“Prime Day's dominance demands brands to cut through the noise and that is where retail media shines,” Smith added. “By leveraging retail media, brands can navigate the competitive landscape, effectively reach their target audience, and ultimately drive sales and brand awareness during Prime Day. If brands have not implemented retail media into their digital advertising strategies, it’s not too late. It will be vital to capitalize on upcoming back-to-school shopping and holiday shopping cycles.”