Adobe Data: Amazon Prime Day Again Boosted Sales for Online Retailers in 2022

Amazon Prime Day is one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year in the U.S., not just for Amazon but for all online sales in general, data from Adobe shows.

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Adobe analyzed shopping data from 100 million SKUs in 18 products and found on the two core Prime Day days of July 11 & 12, U.S. online spending hit a record $11.9 Billion for the event, which is an 8.5% growth year-over-year (YoY).

For the entire week of Prime Day, U.S. online sales also hit another record of $22.4 Billion, a 6.1% growth YOY.

These numbers represent the top spending for U.S. online sales to date in 2022. Not surprisingly, that data also showed that spending slowed as the discounts fell after July 12.

As record inflation is causing consumers to tighten their budgets, shoppers capitalized on discounts for day-to-day products.

• Consumers leveraged Prime Day sales days for Back-to-School shopping with increasing spending across audio equipment, appliances, and children’s apparel.
• Toys saw the highest discounts across retailers at 15.4%.
• Apparel also showed sizeable discounts at 12%.
• Electronics discounts averaged 6%, with computer prices dipping 8% and TVs by 3%.

Despite recent concerns that Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services may be creating a financial trap for consumers, usage of BNPL went up 13% this year over last year during the week of Prime Day. The average order value with BNPL utilization was up 12% YoY.

Another significant growth area for online sales during Prime Day week was Buy Online Pick Up In Store (BOPIS), with brick-and-mortar retailers realizing a 20% increase in conversions compared to an average June day.

Retailers Benefit From Amazon Prime Day

Last week, Amazon said that Prime Day on its platform resulted in another record for the company globally.

Although Amazon did not provide segmented U.S. sales data for a better comparison, Adobe data shows that Prime Day clearly had a significant coattail effect on all retailers in the country.

Like in past years, many online and brick-and-mortar retailers ran their own sales during the same week as Amazon Prime Day to counter Amazon’s promotional sales push.

“Based on the key trends across this year’s Prime Day event, it is apparent that consumers are incredibly price conscious but continue to spend when offered discounts on day-to-day items.”

Adobe blog post analyzing the data

Furthermore, Adobe commented, “It will be important for retailers to leverage price effectively, in order unlock new growth potential online.”

As online retailers prepare for the upcoming holiday season, a key takeaway from Adobe’s Prime Day data is that as inflation persists, holiday gift wish lists may include more useful or everyday items rather than “want” items.