By: Nick Gambino
Amazon launched the popular Prime Day in 2015 to help cultivate new subscribers and create a sales frenzy. The multi-day discount shindig sees users flocking to the site to get their hands on killer deals. The day (or days) has quickly become a rival to other big shopping days like Black Friday.
This year looked a bit different as shoppers are coming off the heels of a global pandemic that saw many out of work or weary of shopping. Despite less than enthusiastic language when Amazon announced the results of the two-day event, it does seem like it was a success after an anemic year.
Adobe Analytics has revealed that the first day of the 48-hour event drove more online sales than any other day in 2021. They hit nearly $6 billion, an 8.7% increase over last year. Adobe Analytics tracks visits to retail sites in the U.S. and looks at more than 100 million products in 18 different categories. If these figures are accurate that means Monday, the first day of Prime Day, beat out the entire Thanksgiving weekend in 2020.
Amazon, notoriously shy about sharing their figures, announced the results sans figures in a report at the conclusion of the 48-hour period.
“Prime Day 2021 was the biggest two-day period ever for Amazon’s third-party sellers, nearly all of which are small and medium-sized businesses, growing even more than Amazon’s retail business,” the press release reads.
They went on to give an idea of what the numbers looked like with members purchasing over 250 million items and spending over $1.9 billion on 70 million+ small business products.
Now, it’s a bit hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison from Prime Day 2020 to Prime Day 2021. The big discount two-dayer generally falls in July. Covid forced 2020’s scheduled Prime Day to October. This year, they decided to have it a month early in June.
June and October are wildly different shopping periods, so it’s hard to compare that with straight numbers. You also have to factor in that we were still in the thick of the pandemic last year, whereas things are currently looking a lot less bleak.
Though Prime Day is officially over, there are some leftover deals you can snatch up if you hurry.
