This year’s Prime Day saw a 50 percent increase in orders in the U.S. and 60 percent rise globally as compared with last year’s edition, Amazon announced Wednesday. The retailer’s Prime VP Greg Greeley said that the company would “definitely” have another Prime Day next year.
The e-commerce giant described its second Prime Day event as the “biggest day ever.” This summer’s event lured in so many customers that it could easily rival the fall shopping extravaganza Black Friday. So, the retailer has big plans to turn Prime Day into a tradition.
The event was successful despite some technical issues at the start. E-commerce analysts reported that sales were matching last year’s levels on Tuesday afternoon, but the next day orders skyrocketed.
Analysts believe that Prime Day brought Amazon more than $400 million in additional income from a year prior. Furthermore, because you need membership to take part in the event, this means that Amazon has now more dedicated fans. And this is good for the business since members tend to shop more on the site than non-members.
Analysts believe that this year’s success may be due to some improvements in how the event was organized. For instance, in 2015, customers complained that inventory was low and there were some technical issues.
This year, Amazon said that it sold more of its own items such as Amazon Echo than in any other time of the year. In fact, Echo sales skyrocketed by 3 times than in last year’s event. But the star of the show was the Fire TV Stick, which was heavily sold across the world.
Additionally, people brought about 2 million toys, nearly 100,00 TV sets, and hundreds of thousands e-reader devices. Third-party businesses were flooded by shoppers and their orders more than tripled.
In Europe, the e-commerce giant sold more items than on the last year’s Black Friday edition. The Spanish had a huge appetite for Kindle e-readers and memory sticks. Italians ordered 750,000 items, while Germans bought 7 million items.
Amazon told customers that the blowout sale has depleted some inventories so they should expect some delays. For instance, Echo devices will be shipped later this month regardless of the two-day shipping policy. Moreover, the devices would be available for sale on the site on July 27, the company said.
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