Online Prime Day Spend Up 6% Despite 'Muted' Discounts: Adobe
Despite "relatively muted discounts across most categories," the $11 billion overall e-commerce spend during Amazon's two-day Prime Day event suggests a “pent up demand for online shopping as consumers look forward to a return to normalcy,” emailed Adobe Digital Insights Director Taylor Schreiner Wednesday. Discount levels were consistent Monday and Tuesday, with the steepest for toys (12%) and appliances (5%). Smaller discounts were for TVs (3%), electronics (2%) and sporting goods (1%). Computer discounts weakened to 6% on day two from 8% on Monday, Adobe said.
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Total U.S. online spending during the last 24 hours of Prime Day topped $5.4 billion, up 3.6% over the second Prime Day last year, said Adobe. Total e-commerce spending over the two-day sales period grew 6.1% over Prime Day 2020, which was pushed to October due to COVID-19. The event gained traction across retail, with Amazon competitors and smaller retailers benefiting from the halo effect of the annual spending event (see 2106140049). Monday ($5.6 billion) and Tuesday were the biggest e-commerce days so far of 2021, Adobe said.
Amazon continued touting its impact on small businesses that use its fulfillment services on Wednesday, saying Prime Day 2021 was a “boon” for small-business sellers who took part in a promotion that gave members $10 to spend during Prime Day when they dropped $10 for select products at select small businesses via Amazon in the two-week run-up to the sales event. Prime customers spent more than $1.9 billion on more than 70 million small-business products over the stretch, Amazon said. Small- and medium-sized businesses that sold on Amazon grew revenue 100%, which it said was “more than Amazon’s retail business.”
Top-selling items during Prime Day included electronics, tools, beauty and nutrition, baby care, apparel and household products, Amazon said. The iRobot Roomba 692 was a popular selling item worldwide, it said. The e-tailer cited back-to-school items customers shopped for, including 600,000 backpacks, one million laptops, a million headphones and 40,000 calculators.
Retailers that offered buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) fulfillment had a 10% conversion bounce Monday and Tuesday vs. an average June day, said Adobe. Retailers without BOPIS had a 3% rise in conversion. Email (161%) and affiliate (163%) channels drove the biggest revenue increases over the two days; social networks and paid search had increases of 106% and 132%, it said. Overall on Monday and Tuesday, large retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales had a 29% e-commerce revenue lift over an average June day, said the analytics firm; retailers with under $10 million in annual online revenue had a 21% bump.