Amazon raked in $4.2 billion from shoppers during this year’s Prime Day event, which is an increase of 33 percent from last year’s Prime Day.
Bloomberg, citing an analysis from Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, reported that based on company-released information such as that it shipped more than 100 million products during the 36-hour event and that small and medium-sized business sold more than $1 billion of products on the platform, he came up with the $4.2 billion estimate. That is higher than a prediction from Coresight Research that Amazon would have revenue of $3.4 billion from Prime Day. The strong sales came even as Amazon faced some glitches in the early hours of the promotion, frustrating scores of consumers. Consumers appeared to get over that quickly, turning Prime Day into Amazon’s biggest shopping day ever.
In a press release Wednesday (July 18) the eCommerce giant said sales for this year’s Prime Day surpassed Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the Prime Day 2017 in terms of sales, making it the biggest shopping event in Amazon’s history. Amazon said that, during the 36-hour sales event, Prime members around the globe purchased more than 100 million products, with bestsellers including the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Dot. Prime Day was the biggest event ever for Amazon devices, the company noted in the press release. This year marked the first time Prime members could get deals during the event at Whole Foods Market. Amazon said one of the best-selling items was organic strawberries. As for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that sell on Amazon, the company said sales “far exceeded” $1 billion. “Prime Day offers us a unique opportunity to thank Prime members with our best deals,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon in the press release. “Extending Prime Day to a day and a half this year allowed us to further reward members with unbeatable deals, access to exclusive new products and unforgettable experiences that highlight the many benefits of a Prime membership. All of this was made possible because of our many valued associates — the global team that continues to make Prime Day bigger and better.”