Amazon’s 2nd Prime Day exceeds first-year totals
NEW YORK – Amazon’s big sales day is here to stay.
Amazon said Prime Day orders rose 60 percent globally this year versus last year’s inaugural showing. It said sales of Amazon’s own electronic devices were particularly strong.
And the company said this won’t be the last “Prime Day.”
“After yesterday’s results, we’ll definitely be doing this again,” said Greg Greeley, Amazon Prime vice president.
The e-commerce powerhouse launched the event last July to promote its $99 annual Prime loyalty program, which offers free two-day shipping and other perks. The loyalty program is a key platform for Amazon because Prime members shop more frequently and spend more money.
After some morning checkout glitches Tuesday, sales accelerated later in the day. For example, the company said it sold 22,000 TVs in the United States by 11 a.m., but that number grew to 90,000 by day’s end.
The Fire TV stick was the best-selling Amazon device and it was the biggest sales day for Amazon’s smart speaker the Echo.
The Seattle company did not disclose any specific sales figures.
Sales were offered in the United States, Canada and Europe where Prime membership is available. Amazon said orders grew 50 percent in the United States alone.
PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster said Amazon’s results beat his expectations for 37 percent growth, and the results solidify Prime Day as an annual holiday sales day.
“While many investors had feared that early day cart glitches would hinder Prime Day, we believe that the results indicate that the Amazon Prime brand remains strong and user engagement continues to improve,” he said in a note to clients.
Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos said while he didn’t find that many “compelling” deals on the site, and that some deals were on older models of goods, Prime Day was an example of “how to make clearance look good.” He estimates the day added 3 percentage points to quarterly revenue and 6 million new Prime members. Amazon, which doesn’t disclose the number of Prime members it has other than that it is in the “tens of millions,” did not comment on how many new Prime members signed up for the program during the sale.