July 11, 2023, the first day of Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale, was not just the largest single sales day in Amazon’s history, it was also the biggest day for ecommerce sales thus far this year, according to Adobe. Data from Adobe Analytics showed that U.S. consumers spent a total of $12.7 billion over the two-day event, up 6.1% from 2022 and setting — as expected — a new record for Prime Day.
Amazon said that Prime members purchased more than 375 million items worldwide and saved more than $2.5 billion through promotions and discounts, with more deals available than any previous Prime Day. Home, fashion and beauty were this year’s top-selling deal categories, with the Fire TV Stick, Laneige Lip Glowy Balm, Apple AirPods and Bissell Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner ranking among the top-selling deals. In fact, Amazon’s own Alexa-enabled Fire TV Stick was the best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide.
“Prime is an incredible value, and we’re proud to offer additional value for members through exclusive deals events like Prime Day,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon Stores in a statement. “Thank you to our Prime members for continuing to shop in our store, and to our employees and independent sellers around the world who delivered for customers this Prime Day.”
Amazon also said that this Prime Day was the largest ever for its independent sellers, also called third-party sellers, which make up the majority of sales on its platform. Amazon doubled down on these small businesses this year with deals pages and search features that highlighted small businesses. Amazon share that some of these companies, including Caraway, True Classic and Tushy, reported an 18X increase in their average daily sales on Amazon during the first day of Prime Day when compared to the days leading up to the event. This was also the first Prime Day when some sellers were able to offer Prime Day deals on their own websites via the new Buy with Prime integration.
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Additionally, Adobe noted an increase in the usage of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services during the sales event, with BNPL accounting for 6.5% of online orders over the two days, driving $927 million in revenue and growing 20% compared to last year.
“For months, consumers have felt the effects of persistent inflation and an uncertain economic environment, and it has pushed shoppers to embrace more flexible ways to manage their spending around the Prime Day event,” said Vivek Pandya, Lead Analyst at Adobe Digital Insights in a statement. “The revenue growth attributed to BNPL is a preview of what we can expect in the months ahead, especially as we near the holiday shopping season.”
