Amazon’s October Attempt at Prime Day Falls Flat, Analysts Say

In a press release Thursday, Amazon said tens of millions of Prime members shopped during the sale, buying more than 100 million items from non-Amazon brands. Otherwise, the company offered few financial details around the event, including sales figures. 

Analysts offered a more downbeat assessment of the sale. Klover, a company that analyzes real-time commerce and financial data, found that households spent around 40% less during this week’s event compared with the July Prime Day.

“This Prime Day seemed to be mostly just another day on Amazon,” said

Brian Mandelbaum,

chief executive at Klover.

Average order prices also appeared to have dropped. Research firm Numerator, which tracks Prime sales event data, said the average order was $46.68, down from $60.29 during the summer event. 

Sprout Social, an analytics company that tracks social-media mentions, reported that in the week after each event was announced, the Prime Early Access Sale was mentioned on Twitter 90% less than the summer event.

Amazon didn’t say how much revenue it earned from its July Prime Day event. Still, at the time the company said that event was its biggest Prime Day, with customers buying more than 300 million items.

During this week’s sale, the online retailer offered markdowns on a range of items, including toys and Amazon devices. Amazon said MacBook Airs and Peloton bikes were some of the most popular items. Amazon recently started selling

Peloton Interactive Inc.’s

equipment and apparel.

The company added that apparel, home goods, toys and Amazon devices were among the most popular shopping categories.

Amazon first created Prime Day in 2015 to boost revenue during the slow summer months. The event has since become a valuable tool to drive subscriptions to its Prime membership. This week’s shopping blitz was open in 15 countries to Amazon’s roughly 200 million Prime subscription members.

At the end of last year, Amazon was estimated to have 172 million Prime members in the U.S., according to data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. That is up from 54 million at the end of 2015 when it first started holding Prime Day events. 

The company charges $139 for an annual subscription, offering members perks including free shipping, Whole Foods discounts and access to Prime Day sales.

In 2020, the company moved its Prime Day from the summer to October after it was overwhelmed with orders in the early part of the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon didn’t offer many financial details after the event but said third-party sellers saw record sales of over $3.5 billion.

Amazon announced last month it was adding a second event for Prime subscription members this year.

Retailers including Amazon,

Target Corp.

and

Walmart Inc.

are trying to drive early holiday sales. Their efforts may be more urgent this year as they compete for customers in an economy whipsawed by excess retail supply and soaring inflation.

Write to Alyssa Lukpat at [email protected]