Amazon’s Delayed Prime Day Scores Big
This year’s pandemic-delayed Amazon Prime Day has brought in more than $3.5 billion worth of third-party sales in the United States and 18 other countries, according to the e-commerce operator. That’s a nearly 60% percent increase from last year.
Prime has more than 150 million paid members, and such consumers also drove some $900 million in sales for small businesses via the event — a figure achieved amid Amazon’s ongoing marketplace charm offensive. This Prime Day delivered the two biggest days ever for third-party sellers, nearly all of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Top-selling categories for third-party sellers include bedding, wireless accessories, nutrition and wellness, arts, crafts and sewing, and health care.
Prime Day took place this year Oct. 13-14. Last year’s event took place in July.
"This year's Prime Day exceeded all of our expectations. On day one, we saw a 700% lift in units sold, leading to a record sales day for us,” said Caron Proschan, founder and CEO of Simply Gum, natural chewing gum and mint company based in New York. “Prime Day has become one of the most important events of the year for us as a small business, not only for its sales boost, but also as a way for us to build awareness with new customers."
Prime members earned tens of millions of dollars in Amazon.com credits from this year’s Spend $10, Get $10 Prime Day promotion while shopping Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon Books, Amazon Pop Up and Amazon 4-star stores.
According to Los Angeles-based consumer intelligence firm InMarket, since the Prime Day promotion began at Whole Foods on Sept. 29, store visitation increased by about 8% above average — an indication of the wide impact of Prime Day even in this year of the pandemic.
During the two-week lead-up to Prime Day, Holiday Favorites was the most popular holiday station and 50 Great Holiday Songs, Christmas Classics and Caroling at Christmas were the most streamed holiday playlists for Amazon Music listeners on the Prime tier in the United States — a sign of how Prime Day served as an on-ramp to the 2020 holiday shopping season.
Globally, the best-selling Prime Day products included Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote, iRobot Roomba Robot Vacuum, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, and the Lego Star Wars Stormtrooper Helmet.
In the United States, the best-selling products included iRobot Roomba Robot Vacuum, MyQ Wireless & WiFi Enabled Smart Garage Door Opener, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Goli Apple Cider Vinegar Vitamins, and Kids Against Maturity: Card Game for Kids and Families.
On Prime Day, the fastest delivery was delivered in 29 minutes and 54 seconds, and included Febreze Car Air Freshener Vent Clips. In the United States, of those Prime members who selected Amazon Day as their preferred delivery option on Prime Day, Saturday was the most popular delivery day chosen.
This year, even more Prime members opted to ship items to an Amazon Hub pickup location versus last year. As of the end of Oct. 13, the top 10 U.S. cities where Prime members used a Hub Locker or Counter service were Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chicago; Dallas; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York; Philadelphia; Portland; San Jose; and Seattle.
No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, Seattle-based Amazon is also planning grocery stores in the Los Angeles and Philadelphia markets, according to media reports. Amazon-owned Whole Foods, based in Austin, Texas, is No. 24 on the list.
