7/19/2024

Three lessons from the success of Amazon Prime Day

Retailers should pay attention to Prime Day 2024 results.

Early results suggest Prime Day 2024 was a sales juggernaut for Amazon and for e-commerce in general.

The 2024 edition of Amazon Prime Day is behind us, leaving a trail of what seems to be mostly good news for online retail. Let’s dive into a few specific learnings we can glean from initial results.

Discounts, not inflation, drive higher sales

Despite widespread gloom and doom reports about inflation, online prices have actually been falling for the past 22 months, according to Adobe Digital Price Index.

And Numerator analysis reveals that average order size for Prime Day rose 7% year-over-year even as average price per item fell roughly 15%, indicating that inflation did not drive the 11% YoY growth in total sales to a record-breaking $14.2 billion reported by Adobe.

What did grow in tandem with overall Prime Day sales was the rate of discounts. According to Salesforce, U.S. discounts rose 10% to an average discount rate of 22%, and web traffic also increased. Consumers have never exactly been averse to a good deal, but low prices are becoming an especially appealing stop along the path to purchase.

Mobile commerce comes of age

For all intents and purposes, mobile devices generated just as much Prime Day revenue as laptops or desktops ($7 billion compared to $7.2 billion according to Adobe Analytics). To use a popular analogy, mobile technology has become "plumbing" in consumers’ lives – they use it constantly (including to shop) and don’t think about it unless it breaks.

Retailers do not necessarily have to adopt a mobile-first strategy, but they need to thoroughly serve the needs of customers who prefer to search and buy products using a small screen rather than a big one.

E-commerce sites need to have a mobile-optimized version that automatically loads on mobile browsers, and there’s really no excuse not to have a consumer app at this point.

In addition, retailers should consider utilizing mobile-oriented sales tools like QR codes and having a commercial presence on popular consumer apps like TikTok.

Extravaganza fatigue has not set in

Every major retailer, and a lot of smaller ones, runs some type of competing event against Prime Day. And Prime Day sales totals keep rising across the industry every year.

In addition, midsummer and the holidays are no longer the only times of year consumers have the chance to participate in blowout sales promotions. A slew of major retailers are all offering back-to-school campaigns, even as analysis indicates back-to-school was a top Prime Day product category.

Amazon has also been offering a fall version of Prime Day for a few years, and recently hosted its first-ever Big Spring Sale. These events have proven quite popular with consumers and also generated a lot of competing promotions.

Throw in special sales Amazon and other retailers successfully offer throughout the year in categories such as pets, beauty and consumer electronics, and it’s clear that at least for now, consumer attitude toward limited-time omnichannel sales blockbusters is “the more, the merrier.”