Ecommerce sets new Prime Day record, up 6.1%

Online shoppers set a new Prime Day record this year. Consumers spent $12.7 billion on July 11 and 12, up 6.1% from 2022, according to Adobe Analytics.

Sales came in heavier on the second day of the event, when online customers spent $6.3 billion, up 6.4% year-over-year.

In 2022, Prime Day sales reached $11.9 billion.

Why we care. Amazon is an ecommerce giant. The yearly Prime Day summer sales event forces online and brick-and-mortar competitors to roll out their own promotions. Taken as a whole, each Prime Day has a slightly different feel based on current ecommerce trends and buying behaviors.

Let’s take a look at some of this year’s contributing factors.

Buy Now Pay Later. BNPL was up 21% on the second day of Prime Day versus the second day last year, according to Adobe. Overall, BNPL was optioned for 6.5% of orders across both days. Big ticket items in categories like furniture/home and electronics become possible for more consumers when they buy now, pay later.

“The revenue growth attributed to Buy Now Pay Later is a preview of what we can expect in the months ahead, especially as we near the holiday shopping season,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights.

Modest discounting. Discounts weren’t as dramatic this Prime Day as in some previous years and promotions. That’s because, across the entire ecommerce landscape, discounts peaked before Prime Day during Independence Day sales.

Online discounts peaked at 25% on July 4, according to Salesforce. By Prime Day, discount rates were down to 18%. For some perspective, the discount rate for Cyber Week 2022 was 30%. Prime Day discounting was down 15% YoY (meaning higher prices as compared to the list price).

Inflation is also a likely reason why the average selling price for Prime Day was up 8% YoY.

Top categories. Another sign that other factors besides discounting contributed to Prime Day purchases was in the top categories.

Here were the top-selling categories, according to Salesforce:

• Electronics, appliances, toys and learning (+6% YoY online sales growth)
• Food and beverage (+6% YoY online sales growth)
• Active apparel and footwear: (0% YoY online sales growth).

And now here’s a look at the categories with the steepest discounts:

• General apparel (30% average discount)
• Home goods (17% average discount)
• Active apparel and footwear (16% average discount).

The data from Adobe Analytics found a lower percentage for apparel discounts at 12% off the listed price. Also, Adobe found that the electronics category was discounted at 14%, but this didn’t include high-demand items like computers (only discounted 8%) and TVs (5%).

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As we found in our pre-Prime Day trends, consumers are researching the products they buy, in many cases, for a month or longer. They know what they want and are willing to spend, even if discounts aren’t as dramatic as in previous years.

Retail Media Networks. A new force this year, retail media networks (RMNs) also contributed to Prime Day returns. Traffic referred to retail websites from RMNs increased by more than 70% over last year, according to Salesforce.

“Ads on retail media networks caught consumers’ eyes throughout Prime Day,” said Rob Garf, Salesforce’s VP and GM of retail. “We saw a huge surge in traffic from this emerging media — making it a critical component of the marketing mix.”