After some early concerns that this year’s Amazon Prime Day could be a flop due to unexpected glitches affecting the Amazon website, moments ago the world’s biggest online retailer led by the richest person in modern history allayed any fears, when it said that this year’s Prime Day was the “Biggest Global Shopping Event in Amazon History” and last year’s record.
Amazon said Prime Day sales grew more than 60%, breaking last year’s record and surpassing Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the previous Prime Day. The company had also added “tens of millions of Prime members” to its platform, who purchased more than 100 million products for the first time ever.
The company also revealed more new Prime members joined on July 16 than any previous day in Amazon history.
The once a year spending bonanza, which started in 2015 and has grown longer, expanding from 30 hours in 2017 to a 36-hour window this time around, was the “biggest shopping event in Amazon history.” As CNBC adds, it was also the first Prime Day that Amazon owned Whole Foods, “which has been touting its own deals throughout the week and offered shoppers $10 to spend on Amazon if they spent $10 on groceries.”
Members saved millions of dollars at Whole Foods Market with Prime Day deals, of which the best-selling deal was organic strawberries. Small and medium-sized businesses selling on Amazon far exceeded $1 billion in sales this Prime Day.
Ahead of the consumption celebration, analysts had expected Amazon to ring up at least $3.6 billion in sales globally through midnight Tuesday. If the press release is accurate, the number could be materially higher, despite a series of glitches on Amazon’s website Monday around 3 p.m. stalled many users from purchasing items or searching deals right away. But a preliminary report said Prime Day sales on Amazon’s third-party marketplace were up nearly 90% during the first 12 hours of the event from a year ago.
According to Amazon, the best deals this year were on Amazon’s own devices like the Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick. The Instant Pot was another hot seller.
The company laid out the best sellers by country, as follows:
- U.S.: Instant Pot 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi Use; 23 and Me DNA Test; LifeStraw Personal Water Filter
- U.K.: Bosch Cordless Drill; Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting Light strip; Finish Dishwasher Tablets
- Spain: SanDisk Ultra 64GB memory card; Cecotec Conga Excellence 990 4 in 1 iTech 3.0 robot vacuum cleaner
- Singapore: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar; Play-Doh Shape and Learn Shape a Story; Kleenex Ultra Soft Toilet Tissue
- Netherlands: Osmart Zigbee Smart Plug; Philips Hue White Ambiance GU10 LED Spot; Sandisk Micro SD
- Mexico: Ace Powder Laundry Detergent; Amazon Basics USB Lightning Cable
- Luxembourg: Jamie Oliver Tefal pan; Brita water filter; Solar-lamp in Preserve Jar with USB connector
- Japan: Top Super Nanox Liquid Laundry Detergent + Extra Large Refill, SAVAS Whey Protein 100 cocoa flavor 1050g
- Italy: Finish Dishwasher Tabs All in 1 Max; Braun Multi-grooming Kit Precision Trimmer 9-in-1 for beard Styling; Hoover Rechargeable Broom 2-in-1 Freedom
- India: Redmi Y2 Gold 32 GB smartphone; Tata salt; Mi 10000mAH Li Polymer Power Bank 2i
- Germany and Austria: PlayStation Plus Membership; Jamie Oliver Pan by Tefal; Osmart Zigbee Smart Plug
- France: PlayStation Plus Membership; SanDisk Ultra 64GB memory card, TP Link Wi-Fi connected plug
- China: Philips Sonicare Healthy White HX6730 Toothbrush; Braun Digital Ear Thermometer; Paul & Joe Beaute Moisturizing Foundation
- Canada: Instant Pot 6 Qt 7-in-1 Multi Use; LifeStraw Personal Water Filter; Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Headphones
- Belgium: SanDisk Ultra 128GB memory card; Osmart Zigbee Smart Plug; Philips Hue lightbulbs
- Australia: PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Console with Bonus Fortnite Content; FIFA 18 for PlayStation 4; Philips Hue lightbulbs
Meanwhile, as CNBC notes, retailers who competing with the online behemoth have been trying to piggyback and boost sales this week, offering their own deals events online. Target, which had a one-day sale running on its website, said Tuesday was the “highest single day of traffic and sales of 2018” online so far for the company.
On the news, AMZN stock rose to a new all time high, up 0.6%, rising to $1,854, and adding a few more billion to Bezo’s net worth… but since the US open, it has been falling.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2O0HgyP Tyler Durden