Amazon’s Prime Day is proving to be a significant event for the retail industry. In its third year of existence, this annual discount day for the eCommerce retailer is helping to bring droves of consumers into eCommerce in a concentrated time frame. This year, personalized marketing campaigns were the linchpin for helping with this surge of retail activity.
According to a Periscope By McKinsey survey, 36 percent of consumers made a purchase on the same day as Amazon’s Prime Day. This is a 14 percent year-over-year increase of those shopping on the mega sale day, with just 22 percent of consumers making purchases last year.
By measuring out the sentiment of consumers’ attitudes toward Amazon Prime Day, researchers were able to learn that 34 percent of people were not aware of the event last year, and 12 percent cited personalized promotional efforts as the key to luring them in. The expansion of discounted options was another reason why consumers were drawn in to making a purchase on Amazon’s Prime Day, with 12 percent saying there were more items to choose from and 7 percent spending more money because of it.
Periscope By McKinsey managing partner Brian Elliott commented to Chain Store Age on how sales like Amazon’s Prime Day are affecting the way consumers shop. “While the flash sales have become a fixture of online retail, enticing shoppers to part with their money using a combination of limited time, limited quantities and great deals is no longer enough to drive customers to buy on the day,” said Elliott.
“As these findings demonstrate, there’s more to a successful flash sale than discounting some items or starting a countdown clock. To maximize the impact of time-limited online shopping events, retailers and brands need to use even more data analytics solutions to deliver an optimized shopping experience.”
Given consumers’ penchant for always looking for a deal, it makes sense that 44 percent of respondents said Black Friday deals have no appeal to them. It sounds as though Amazon’s tactic for upping the discount ante for its Prime members is proving to be a sound strategy for moving the consumer spending needle in eCommerce.