Amazon Prime Day Sales Rise 13% in First Six Hours of Event
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Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day sales rose about 13% in the first six hours of the event compared with the same period last year, according to Momentum Commerce, which manages 50 brands in a variety of product categories.
The early result points to a strong Prime Day performance, according to the firm, because sales during the 2023 event peaked in the first several hours. Momentum, which manages Amazon sales on behalf of brands like Crocs, Lego and Beats by Dre, generates about $7 billion in sales annually on Amazon, giving it a large sample to assess Prime Day’s performance.
“Consumers continue to spend, but they do so strategically, which can benefit a sale like Prime Day,” said Sky Canaves, an analyst at EMarketer Inc. “I think we’ll see shoppers buy things like headphones and chargers rather than big-ticket electronics like laptops.”
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 Global Freight carriers list. It also ranks No. 9 on the TT Top 100 private carriers list.
On your marks, get set, go— Prime Day is finally here! Millions of amazing deals for our Prime members, with more being released through the two day bonanza. Have at it and have fun... https://t.co/KRZTKBsIkQ pic.twitter.com/PXUAR8teE8 — Andy Jassy (@ajassy) July 16, 2024
Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 to attract new subscribers, who pay $139 a year for shipping discounts, video streaming and other benefits. The event helps the company lock in shoppers before the holidays and deepen its relationship with existing customers by offering them exclusive deals on gadgets and other products. About 180 million people in the U.S. had Prime memberships as of March, up 8% from a year earlier, according to market research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
Prime Day can serve as a bellwether for the holiday shopping season. Adobe Inc. estimated online sales across all retailers will total $14 billion over the two-day event, up almost 11% from last year. EMarketer gave a more muted estimate of 6% growth to $13.8 billion in U.S. online spending during the Prime Day sale, with direct sales on Amazon up 5.5% to $8.2 billion.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a frequent Amazon critic, released a preliminary report timed to Prime Day claiming that the surge in business during the sale makes it more likely Amazon workers will be injured filling orders. Amazon is also fighting allegations from the federal government and its home state of Washington that it exposes workers to injury risks.
“Prime Day and the holiday season are characterized by extremely high volume and intense pressure to work long hours and ignore safety guidelines,” according to report, which was released July 15 and is based on interviews with more than 100 Amazon workers around the U.S.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the report “draws sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on unverified anecdotes, and it misrepresents documents that are several years old and contained factual errors and faulty analysis.”
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