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Prime Day is prime sales for Amazon sellers! With more than 200 million Amazon Prime members stocking up on essentials or snatching irresistible deals, this big sale event brings limitless opportunities for sellers to skyrocket their sales.
Although there’s definitely a higher demand during the event, there’s also higher competition among sellers. If you want to maximize profits on Prime Day, you’d best prepare well months in advance. Pay attention to the latest trends, forecasts, and statistics to gain insights into what’s likely to happen on Amazon Prime Day 2024.
Let’s start off with a quick run-through of what Amazon Prime Day is and the latest statistics that are likely to impact this year’s Prime event.
Now one year shy of its 10th year providing online shoppers massive savings on practically all commodities, Amazon Prime Day continues to innovate and adapt to changing consumer needs. What started out as a two-day shopping event in July 2015 for Amazon’s 20th anniversary year is now one of the most awaited shopping events worldwide.
Except in 2020 when the sale had to be moved during the pandemic, Prime Day is held in mid-July every year. A week before the event, deals already start getting rolled out in waves, building even more anticipation for the two main sale days. Everything from essentials to big-ticket items is offered at discounted prices during these two days. However, the offers are exclusive to Prime members, so you’d need to be subscribed to one of the membership plans to take advantage of the price drops.
We’ve already established how important Prime Day is. Now, it’s time to go through some of the trends and areas of focus you can capitalize on. The statistics below provide valuable insights as you prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2024.
The 11th of July 2023, the first day of Prime Day 2023, now holds the record of raking in the largest sales in a single day in the entire history of Amazon. Compared to 2022 Prime Day sales, there were 25% more items purchased worldwide by Prime members, which generated an accumulated savings of approximately $2.5 billion.
Of the 375 million items sold during Prime Day 2023, Alexa-enabled devices were the best-selling products across all Amazon sites worldwide. Prime members bought millions of such devices, including the 3rd Gen Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.
The latest Prime Day event had accumulated worldwide sales of a whopping $12.9 billion. That’s an increase of 6.7% compared to the previous year.
Buy with Prime, a new perk for Prime members, enables shoppers to extend their Prime benefits beyond the Amazon marketplace. During Prime Day, participating brands also ran promotional activities for Prime Day deals and saw their daily Buy with Prime orders increase 10 times than usual. Moreover, the revenue from orders during Prime Day was also eight times greater than that of the previous month.
Amazon is continuously improving its operations network to deliver packages at the fastest speeds possible. Billions of items are now delivered worldwide on the same day or the next. In the United States alone, more than four billion units are received by buyers within the next day of purchase.
What does this have to do with Prime Day? Well, with Prime members getting their orders at the fastest speeds ever, Prime Day items will undoubtedly be preferable to those offered in other marketplaces. As Amazon continues to revamp its fulfillment process with AI solutions, in-region fulfillment centers, and same-day delivery services, online shoppers will be more interested in participating in Amazon sales events.
In October 2022, Amazon launched Prime Early Access, which is like a spin-off of the blockbuster July Prime Day. A similar October sale event Prime Big Deal Days was also held in 2023. This newest holiday sales event saw 25 million same-day or next-day delivery items being purchased in the United States alone. Worldwide, Prime members saved more than $1 billion on Prime big deals.
According to a consumer survey, 28% of Prime Day shoppers in the United States purchased home goods and 26% bought household essential goods. It’s highly likely that most consumers are taking advantage of huge price drops to fill up their pantries with the basics.
It seems that consumers are also putting off purchases of non-essentials until Prime Day as apparel & shoes (24%) and consumer electronics (21%) also get their fair share of Prime Day sales. Completing the list of the top five most popular categories on Prime Day are beauty & cosmetics and health & wellness, tied in fifth place, both with 19% of consumers buying items from these categories.
UK shoppers are hauling toys and games on Prime Day. Approximately 60% of the products with the highest sales growth in Amazon UK are from this category. In 2023, sales for the house-shaped Peppa Pig bucket skyrocketed by a massive 936,000%.
One consumer survey shows that almost a quarter of all shoppers spend an average of $20 on each order during Amazon Prime Day. Another survey reveals that 64% of shoppers spend under $100 on Prime Day.
While big-ticket items can help you earn more profit, consider offering a range of products that meet most budgets. Consider consumer price points to find saleable items that appeal to different shoppers.
The state of the economy still impacts the shopping behavior of consumers. While 70% of consumers in the United States still planned to shop online on Amazon Prime Day, they would only purchase products that they need. Impulse shopping is no longer the pulse as 1 in 3 Prime members say that the worsening economic situation curbs their spending.
When shoppers who had no plans on making any purchases on Prime Day were asked why they wouldn’t do so, more than 50% cited product price inflation as their primary reason. Another reason for not shopping on Amazon Prime Day is the rising interest rates (25%). Shifting priorities seem to impact purchasing decisions, too, as 18% of shoppers choose to spend on travel and experiences instead of on Prime Day shopping.
Nearly half of Prime Day shoppers plan their purchases during this sale holiday while only around 27% make unplanned purchases. More than 50% of these shoppers purchase only the products that they have been waiting to buy on sale.
Pre-sale announcements a few weeks before Prime Day can help build anticipation for your Prime Day deals. Run targeted marketing campaigns to get yourself on the buying list of shoppers who are planning purchases in advance.
Almost half of the shoppers who participated in a poll indicated that they’ve increased their spending on Prime Day over the past year. Nearly 20% have said they spent more than last year’s Prime Day sale, and 22% said they spent much more. In contrast, only 17% have indicated they spent much less compared to the previous year. As economic conditions improve, we’ll hopefully see increased spending propensity in Amazon Prime Day 2024.
Across all age groups, we see growth in spending during Prime Day. Consumers ages 35 to 54, being more established and financially capable, still make up the largest chunk of Prime Day shoppers. However, we see the highest growth among consumers aged 25 to 34.
Capitalize on the growing spending power of the younger demographics to help sustain future growth. Tailor your product offerings and marketing strategies to capture their interest and enrich engagement.
Adobe Analytics shows that Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) purchases increased by approximately 20% compared to the previous year’s Prime Day. On the first day of Prime Day 2023, BNPL orders generated around $461 million in revenue, up by 19.5% compared to 2022. The second day of Prime Day saw an even higher year-on-year growth of 21%, with a revenue of $466 million from BNPL purchases.
As consumers look for better ways to manage their spending, we can expect more purchases under BNPL and other flexible payment terms. Consider implementing such payment methods to increase your conversion rates.
Every year, there are more and more consumers using their smartphones to do online shopping. From 43.7% to 46.5%, the percentage of online sales made from mobile devices is on a steady upward trend. This highlights the importance of mobile optimization for sellers. So make sure your product listings are mobile-friendly to capture this consumer base.
Prime Day sales have steadily climbed over the years—even during the pandemic. Statista reports global sales to be:
The best-selling categories have also remained pretty much consistent over the years, with the following categories generating the highest sales in the past five years:
Some categories have weaned in popularity though. Arts, Crafts & Sewing and Nutrition & Wellness, in particular, are not as popular now as they were in 2020 and 2021. These top categories can help you decide what products to sell on Amazon for Prime Day 2024.
As an Amazon seller gearing up for Prime Day, it's crucial to have a strategic plan in place to maximize your sales and stand out among competitors. Below are more actionable tips to help you navigate Prime Day and boost your success:
You think you’ve stocked up enough? Think again! Remember that Prime Day shoppers wait for the big sale to grab essentials and get items on their wish lists at the lowest prices possible. If you don’t have enough stock for their order, they won’t bat an eyelash moving to the next seller.
So bulk up your inventory. Make sure you can accommodate the increased demand during the sale. Use advanced tools, such as Bindwise for inventory management and SellerRunning for arbitrage and dropshipping to automate some tasks.
A pricing strategy is important all throughout the year but even more so during Prime Day. With hordes of competitors adjusting their prices to lure buyers like moths, you might be tempted to lower your prices. But then, you’d risk losing profit and may even end up at a loss.
Your pricing strategy must balance a good profit margin with existing market prices. Instead of lowering prices, you may want to consider offering add-on values that attract shoppers. You can also use FW Profit Analytics to get insights on profit data for the products you intend to sell and SmartRepricer to automate pricing depending on real-time market conditions.
During Prime Day, the competition among Amazon sellers becomes pretty intense. However, there’s even more competition beyond the platform. Prime Day shoppers also check out deals in other marketplaces. In fact, Insider Intelligence reveals that approximately 20% of Prime Day shoppers also shop during Walmart Week and 16% make purchases during Best Buy’s Black Friday.
Moreover, Walmart is intent on growing its Walmart+ program, which poses a threat to Amazon Prime. This underscores the importance of diversifying your sales channels and leveraging promotions on multiple platforms to reach a wider audience and mitigate the risk of over-reliance on Amazon.
After the success of the Prime Early Access Sale in 2022 and the Prime Big Deal Day in 2023, we’re likely to see more Prime Days beyond the usual July event. Some industry experts believe that Amazon may tap the spring season as well to provide Prime members with more deals throughout the year. If this does happen, Prime deals will probably be focused on health and wellness, food and grocery, or home improvement categories.
While it’s still too early to tell if there will indeed be more Prime Days in 2024, you may want to start planning already and brainstorm ideas for more seasonal promotions in the coming years.
If you have your own eCommerce site, consider participating in Buy with Prime promotions for Prime Day. This will let your customers enjoy their Prime benefits while shopping directly from your website. You’ll also get to increase your visibility and reach new customers as your deals get featured in the Amazon store, too. Just put a little extra effort into making your ad banners and images stand out from other deals.
Big sale events are often plagued with inventory issues, shipment delays, and occasional server crashes. You wouldn’t want to lose credibility for being unable to address order concerns immediately. Be proactive and anticipate the need for more customer support not only during Prime Day but also on the days right before and after the event.
ChannelReply, OnSite, and FeedbackWhiz are your best tools for streamlining customer support. These automated tools can handle customer inquiries, manage reviews, and ensure timely responses, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business during peak sales periods.
As early as now, start your preparations for Amazon Prime Day. Arm yourself with powerful tools from the Threecolts seller arsenal. Tap into the latest software for inventory management, retail arbitrage, customer support, and profit analytics to help you achieve peak sales performance during Prime Day.
Prime Day presents a prime opportunity for you to boost your sales and expand your customer base. By implementing strategic tactics and leveraging valuable insights gleaned from past statistics, you can position yourself for success in the competitive landscape of Amazon's biggest sales event.
With the right preparation, proactive customer service, and a keen understanding of market trends, you can maximize your profits and capitalize on the limitless opportunities that Prime Day offers. So gear up, stay ahead of the curve, and make the most of Amazon Prime Day 2024!
