BOSTON, 10 AUGUST 2018 Amazon reported that Prime Day 2018 was the “biggest global shopping event in its history,” with more than 100 million products sold during the 36-hour promotional event. Now, new analysis from Profitero sheds light on which categories and brands shined brightest during this year’s big event.
Analyzing eight categories in the U.S., Profitero found that Amazon’s sales nearly tripled during Prime Day, compared to average daily sales the week leading up to the event.
Not surprisingly, electronics was the clear winner with sales spiking 215% on Prime Day versus sales for an “average” day. More surprising was the lift seen in the home improvement category as sales soared 200% higher than normal.
Amazon’s growing focus and promotional efforts this Prime Day on everyday household products — such as beauty, grocery and pet — didn’t go unnoticed either. Beauty sales increased by 186% and pet sales went up by 134%, while grocery sales more than doubled (+108%) on Prime Day compared with a typical day.
Other key findings from Profitero’s analysis:
“‘Contrived’ online shopping events like Prime Day are proven to drive significant spikes in traffic and sales volume during times of the year that historically may not have been seasonal peaks,” said Keith Anderson, SVP of Strategy & Insights at Profitero. “Brands that sit on the sidelines run the risk of losing market share that’s hard to win back later. On top of that, they lose the opportunity to use Prime Day as a testing ground to learn what works — and doesn’t work — as we approach the all-important holiday season.”
To see the full supporting charts for this analysis, go here.
Methodology Summary
Using its proprietary sales estimation algorithm (which captures 2x to 8x more products in a category than alternative methods), Profitero analyzed sales for millions of products across 8 representative categories on Amazon.com in the U.S. from July 9 – July 17, 2018 and 6 categories in the U.K. “Prime Day” data depicted in this analysis reflect full two-day sales for July 16-17, the dates of the 2018 event. Only brands with at least $1 million in sales during Prime Day were considered for the brand-level analysis. When producing public research, Profitero only releases sales data in the form of percentages, but Profitero clients can see sales increases for their products and competitor products in percentages and exact dollars.