Prime Day is poised to become one of the top e-commerce shopping days of the year — and not just for Amazon.
Prime Day 2017 proved that the amount of retailers that are leveraging the shopping holiday to capture their own market share is on the rise. The number of unique retailers that issued deals on digital coupon site RetailMeNot.com increased 340%, from 27 retailers in 2016 to 119 retailers in 2017, according to data from RetailMeNot.
Last year, Amazon Prime Day was RetailMeNot's biggest online shopping day of Q3 across a variety of retailers and categories. That was up significantly from its 21st position in Q3 of 2016. Prime Day deals consisted of distinct messaging strategies: coupon codes contained the word "Prime," and offers used phrases like "Prime Time," "Black Friday in July" and "Cyber Monday in July." They were also characterized by short-lived availability, aggressive discounts, sitewide codes and free shipping.
Retailers actively competing on Prime Day last year saw more than a 30% increase in online traffic to their RetailMeNot.com store pages. Those who didn't participate experienced a 4% decrease in online traffic to their RetailMeNot store pages. While Amazon's store page received 4% of visits to RetailMeNot.com on Prime Day in 2017, the vast majority (96%) of consumer website demand was driven by retailers other than Amazon.
Many retailers — and customers — also used Prime Day 2017 as an opportunity to spur back-to-school shopping. This year’s shopping holiday is expected to tell a similar story, as 91% of customers who plan to shop that day will make a back-to-school-related purchase. They have also allotted $70 of their Prime Day budgets (an average of $167) toward back-to-school items, the study revealed.
To be sure to grab this wallet share, 60% of companies plan to run promotional offerings that will target shoppers before Prime Day arrives. Further, more than half (54%) will run offers to coincide with Prime Day, and 53% will target shoppers in the following days who may have missed out.
These efforts could push Prime Day 2018 to become one of the top e-commerce shopping days of the year — potentially rivaling Black Friday and Cyber Monday in popularity, according to the study.
"Prime Day is a huge opportunity for all retailers," said Marissa Tarleton, chief marketing officer of RetailMeNot.
"This relatively new shopping holiday has quickly become the kickoff for the back-to-school shopping season,” she added. “In both sales and opportunity, this day is transformative not just for Amazon but for all retailers savvy enough to capitalize on it. The day is here to stay, and it benefits consumers and retailers alike."