What started off as an event to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary has become the fourth largest shopping event in the U.S. Last year, “Amazon Prime Day brought 179 million visitors to the desktop and mobile sites of the top 25 U.S. retailers. That compares with 216 million on Thanksgiving, 219 million on Cyber Monday, and 248 million on Black Friday.”* Given that this is a particularly slower time of year for retail sales, these numbers are even more impressive. Of course, website traffic to other retailers increase on Prime Day, as consumers flock to retailers’ sites to see how prices compare.
Amazon has upped the ante this year with shipping in less than an hour for $7.99 for 25 metropolitan areas, deeper inventory levels, and new deals every five minutes (compared to last year’s ten minute intervals). With the second annual Prime Day just around the corner on July 16, it’ll be interesting to see how their sales fare. Amazon has not released any predictions of its expected sales for this year.
