Prime Day First-Day Sales Dive 41%, Retail Consultant Reports

Amazon’s sales reportedly dropped 41% on the first day of its four-day Prime Day sales event compared to the first day of last year’s two-day event.

Momentum Commerce reported that figure for Tuesday (July 8), with Momentum’s Founder and CEO John Shea saying that the sales numbers for this year’s longer event could still surpass those of last year’s shorter one, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (July 9).

Reached by PYMNTS, an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “Typical of statements made by third-party consultancies that don’t have access to the actual data, these numbers are highly inaccurate.”

Shea attributed the drop in first-day sales to consumers putting items in their shopping carts but holding off on completing the purchase in case better deals come along, according to the report.

Last year’s shorter event encouraged shoppers to head to checkout to ensure they wouldn’t miss out on the discounts, Shea said, per the report.

Momentum Commerce sees a portion of Prime Day results through the brands for which it manages sales on the platform, the report said. Momentum generates about $7 billion a year in sales on Amazon for those brands.

Amazon Vice President, Amazon Prime Jamil Ghani told Bloomberg Television Wednesday that Amazon was “pleased by the engagement” with shoppers during the event and that it is “very early,” according to the report.

Ghani said during the interview that Amazon extended the duration of Prime Day because shoppers wanted more time to discover the deals, per the report.

Amazon said in a Wednesday press release that this year’s Prime Day, which runs through Friday (July 11), offers more deals at 50% off or more than last year’s event.

According to numbers shared with PYMNTS by Adobe, Prime Day’s kickoff surpassed Thanksgiving 2024’s $6.1 billion in eCommerce spend.

Adobe also found that 50.2% of sales came through a mobile device and that buy now, pay later orders for Amazon’s Prime Day were up 13.6% year over year.

Prime Day, along with Walmart’s reinvigorated Walmart+ Week that launched the same day, could become a stress test for consumer spending, PYMNTS reported Tuesday.

Retailers may be wondering if consumers will behave differently than they did last year due to global tariffs and a continued slide in consumer confidence being added to an existing cloud of economic uncertainty.