After an unprecedented move from July to October and alongside significant supply chain strain, Amazon Prime Day 2020 delivered $10.4 billion in sales. That was up 45.2% from $7.16 billion in 2019 and a whopping 148.2% from $4.19 billion in 2018.
The annual sales event took place on October 13 and October 14 this year across the U.S. and 18 other countries. Prime members saved more than $1.4 billion over the two-day sales event, according to a press release from Amazon.
Amazon Prime Day 2021 will take place on June 21-22, 2021. In anticipation of the event returning to normalcy this year, let’s reflect on last year’s unordinary Prime Day.
Amazon Prime Day 2020: ROI Client Trends
ROI clients from varying industries saw tremendous success over last year’s shopping holiday, with the strongest revenue on day 2 of Prime Day. A sports equipment client even saw day 2 revenue increase 100% over day 1 revenue.
A manufacturing & hardware brand saw a 23% revenue increase compared to the Tuesday & Wednesday of the prior week by driving Sponsored Brands traffic to their featured product page. The client featured deals across multiple categories and had separate campaigns for featured Prime Day ASINs.
Another manufacturing & hardware brand featured deals across multiple categories, with separate campaigns for featured Prime Day ASINs. As a result, the brand saw a 105% revenue increase compared to the Tuesday & Wednesday of the week before.
The Prime Day Halo Effect Is Real
One of our clients in the technology industry didn’t have any Prime Day deals, but still saw residual success from increased traffic to Amazon in the form of a 329% increase in sales at a 58% lower ACoS. The majority of sales were driven by Sponsored Brands and Amazon’s “Back to Study” landing page.
51% of Digital Commerce 360’s top 100 online retailers had special sales on October 13.
Non-Amazon retail sites in the U.S. saw 17% higher traffic and 13% higher conversion rates compared to the Tuesday before Amazon Prime Day 2020. Compared to Prime Day 2019, traffic was up 51% and conversion rates were up 16%. Online sales for non-Amazon retail sites in the U.S. grew 76% on the first day of Prime Day 2020 compared to the first day of Prime Day 2019.
Supporting Small Businesses
Amazon shifted its focus heavily to align with consumers being more interested in supporting small and local businesses than ever last year.
One of ROI’s food & beverage clients benefited from the Small Business Deals Page and featuring Lightning Deals on different products each day. In fact, this brand saw the best sales days in their account history, with Sponsored Brands Video seeing the most significant revenue increase.
A special “spend $10, get $10” promotion for customers who purchased from a small business in the weeks leading up to Prime Day helped Prime members save tens of millions of dollars, driving $900 million in total sales. Third-party sellers (which are mostly small- to medium-sized businesses) also saw record-breaking sales, with Prime Day delivering the two biggest days ever.
3P sellers saw sales surpass $3.5 billion from Prime Day 2020 – nearly a 60% increase over 2019.
Amazon’s marketplace sales have steadily declined over each Prime Day due to Amazon’s heavy promotions on its own products. However, the share of marketplace sales went up year-over-year for the first time last year. Digital Commerce 360 projects that marketplace sales comprised 35% of Amazon Prime Day 2020 sales, up from 32% in 2019.
Popular Amazon Prime Day 2020 Products
Overall best-selling categories included home, electronics, nutrition & wellness, and arts, crafts, & sewing. Similarly, for 3P, best-selling categories included bedding, wireless accessories, nutrition & wellness, arts, crafts, & sewing, and health care.
Globally, the most popular item purchased on Prime Day was the Echo Dot, which was out of stock until December. Many Alexa-compatible devices saw a record-breaking Prime Day. Additionally, consumers purchased a record number of Fire TV Edition Smart TVs.
Top-selling deals in the U.S. included the iRobot Roomba Robot Vacuum, MyQ Wireless & WiFi Enabled Smart Garage Door Opener, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Goli Apple Cider Vinegar Vitamins, and Kids Against Maturity: Card Game for Kids and Families.
