The first day of Prime Day 2023 (July 11) was the single largest sales day in the company’s history, with sales coming in at $6.4 billion. This also made it the biggest e-commerce day of 2023 so far. Over the course of the two-day shopping event, Prime members purchased more than 375 million items worldwide and saved more than $2.5 billion on millions of deals across the Amazon store, helping make it the biggest Prime Day event ever.
In a statement from Doug Herrington, the CEO of Amazon Stores said, “The first day of Prime Day was the largest sales day in Amazon’s history, and Prime members saved more this year than any other Prime Day event. Prime is an incredible value, and we’re proud to offer additional value for members through exclusive deals events like Prime Day. 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.”
Deals Galore
There were more deals offered than ever before, with Home, Fashion and Beaut among the top-selling deal categories. Fire TV Stick, LANEIGE Lip Glowy Balm, Apple AirPods, and Bissell Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner, specifically were among the top-selling deals.
This Prime Day was also the biggest ever for independent sellers on Amazon, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses. Small businesses Caraway, True Classic, and TUSHY increased their average daily sales in Amazon’s store by over 18x during the first day of the Prime Day event when compared to 2023 leading up to Prime Day.
Prime members purchased millions of Alexa-enabled devices, including Fire TV Stick (3rd Gen) with Alexa Voice Remote, which was the best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide.
New Feature – Buy with Prime
Members shopped deals beyond the Amazon store using Buy with Prime, a new Prime member perk that offers U.S.-based members the benefits they love and trust when shopping directly from participating brands’ websites. To help drive awareness for these deals, Buy with Prime invited a range of small, medium, and larger merchants to participate in promotional activities in connection with Prime Day deals on their own sites. These deals were featured across Amazon channels, including placement in premium on-site banners on the Amazon store, influencer content, and digital awareness campaigns. Merchants who participated in Prime Day activities, in aggregate, experienced a 10x increase in daily Buy with Prime orders and saw an 8x increase in daily revenue from those orders during the Prime Day event period versus the month before Prime Day was announced.
Highlights by the Numbers
- Early numbers from data firm Numerator found that the average spend per order went up to $56.64, from $53.14 in 2022.
- Purchases of appliances, toys and electronics rose well above each category’s daily average in June — by 37%, 27% and 12%, respectively.
- 6.4% of orders were placed via Buy Now Pay Later.
- 43.7% of sales were placed via smartphones rather than on large screens.
- As for the biggest deals, electronics were discounted 16%; apparel, 13%; toys, 15%; computers, 10%; sporting goods, 9%; and furniture, 7%.
Tough Times Might be on the Horizon
Prime Day sales have often been an indicator of shopping patterns through the remainder of the year, but that might not be the case for 2023. The surge in spending could be “the last gasp of a beleaguered consumer” in a slowing economy, one analyst tells Yahoo Finance. Worries over a looming recession may have had many consumers thinking, “Spend while we still can.” It will be interesting to see how the rest of the year plays out, especially when we get to the holiday shopping season.
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