Prime Early Access customers have plenty of holiday shopping left
In the first 36 hours of Amazon's Prime Early Access event, customers indicated the event did not mark the end of the holiday shopping season.
According to analysis from Numerator, only three in 10 (31%) surveyed shoppers said they bought holiday gifts. Of those who purchased gifts, 70% of respondents said they have completed less than half of their holiday shopping, 15% have completed about half, 11% have completed more than half, and 5% have completed all.
In good news for Amazon’s ongoing holiday sales performance, 95% of surveyed customers said they will definitely or probably shop Amazon again in the next three months for holiday purchases.
The average Amazon Prime Early Access order size was $46.44. The average price per item sold is $30.45. Nearly half (49%) of households shopping the Prime Early Access sale have placed two or more separate orders already, bringing the average household spend to roughly $95.62.
The top-selling items so far are Amazon photo projects, Amazon gift cards, Melissa & Doug brand toys, Amazon Essentials women’s apparel, and Amazon Echo Dot. Close to six in 10 (57%) items have sold for under $20, while 4% have sold for over $100.
The top categories consumers say they've purchased are household essentials, health & beauty and toys & video games. Fourteen percent of surveyed shoppers say they have purchased large ticket items they would only buy on sale, while 21% have acquired everyday goods they would be buying anyways and 51% have purchased items for themselves or their households. One in five (21%) have bought non-holiday gift items.
Inflation impacted 80% of Prime Early Access shoppers – 30% said they waited for the sale to purchase a specific item at a discounted price, while 27% passed on a good deal because it wasn't a necessity. Inflation also drove 14% to look at prices outside of Amazon before buying.
Initially announced in September 2022, Prime Early Access Sale offers Prime members hundreds of thousands of deals. As part of the event, Amazon is introducing a Top 100 list of popular and giftable holiday items. New deals from the list will drop throughout the sale, offering savings across all top Amazon categories, including electronics, fashion, home, kitchen, pets, toys, and Amazon devices.
This marks the first year Amazon is essentially hosting two full-blown versions of its members-only Prime Day promotion. The retailer has not yet said if it will also provide any type of early holiday (pre-Thanksgiving) promotion open to all consumers. Chief Amazon rivals Walmart and Target are both running October holiday sales events for all shoppers.
All three retail giants are making an early holiday push amid what many experts are predicting will be a modest holiday season. Deloitte’s annual holiday forecast predicts that year-over-year holiday sales will increase 4% to 6%. By comparison, sales grew 15.1% in 2021.
Prime membership costs $14.99 per month, or $139 per year. In the U.S., that includes free, fast delivery. Anyone can join Prime or start a free 30-day trial to be eligible to participate in Prime Early Access Sale.
To see the full Numerator Prime Early Access Sale data, click here.