Amazon Prime Day 2024: Results & Data Analysis for Sellers
Amazon’s 10th Prime Day ran on July 16th and 17th this year, solidifying its position as a major shopping event with ever-increasing popularity and scale. Despite expanding into a two-day event over the years, the retail holiday retained its distinct name – Prime Day. Consumers recognize Prime Day as a round-the-clock deals extravaganza, requiring them to regularly check Amazon throughout the event to snag limited-time discounts before they disappear.
As in previous years, savings opportunities started early with a variety of Early Prime Day Deals available on July 15th, the day before the main event, and many of the deepest discounts on Early Prime Day Deals were for Amazon’s own popular devices.
Source: Amazon
In this post, we’ll analyze some of Tinuiti’s initial findings on Prime Day 2024 and offer actionable insights to help with preparations for next year’s event. We’ll dive into Prime Day’s history, the results and key takeaways from 2024, how (and when) to prepare for the next Prime Day, and more.
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is a two-day shopping event hosted by Amazon exclusively for its Prime members. It typically features significant discounts on a vast array of products, from electronics and home goods to fashion and toys. Originally started as a celebration of Amazon’s Prime membership anniversary, it has evolved into a global shopping phenomenon rivaling Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Source: Amazon
Key Data & Results for Prime Day 2024
Just a day after the sale wrapped, Amazon announced that Prime Day 2024 was Amazon’s biggest Prime Day shopping event ever, with millions more Prime members shopping the two-day shopping event compared to Prime Day 2023.
Prime Day By the Numbers
Amazon didn’t reveal exact numbers, but Adobe Analytics reported that consumers spent $14.2 billion during the Prime Day event, an 11% jump from last year’s $12.7 billion total. According to Numerator, the average order size on Prime Day 2024 was $57.97 and 60% of households shopping Prime Day placed 2+ separate orders, bringing the average household spend to roughly $152.33.
Numerator noted that the top items on Prime Day 2024 were Amazon Fire TV Sticks, Premier Protein Shakes, and Liquid IV Packets. Apparel and shoes, home goods, and household essentials were also popular purchases among consumers. It was also reported that more than half of shoppers took advantage of sales to buy items they had been eyeing prior to the event.
Back-to-school shopping was also a focus for many consumers shopping on Prime Day as the sale ran later in the month compared to last year. Parents flocked to the platform for deals on everything from clothing and electronics to school supplies and dorm essentials. In fact, back-to-school shopping significantly boosted sales this year, with spending on related items surging 216% compared to average daily sales in June, according to Adobe.
“Prime Day 2024 was a huge success thanks to the millions of Prime members globally who turned to Amazon for fantastic deals, and our much-appreciated employees, delivery partners, and sellers around the world who helped bring the event to life for customers.”
Doug Herrington CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores
Tinuiti’s Essential Marketing Calendar for Second Half of the Year Success
From the World Series to Black Friday, sync important dates to your calendar with one click.
Marketplace Competition
Amazon’s Prime Day faced stiff competition from a range of retailers. Walmart, Target, and Best Buy launched competing sales events, all happening before Prime Day, offering comparable deals and leveraging their own strengths like in-store pickup.
Numerator reports that over half (54%) of Prime Day shoppers compared prices with other retailers prior to placing their orders, and about 35% shopped during last week’s Target Circle Week sale and/or Walmart Deals sale.
It’s clear shoppers are looking everywhere for the best deals on Prime Day, so it’s important to offer competitive prices and promotions. If you’re thinking about adding emerging marketplaces to your strategy, it might be worth exploring your options before next year’s sales events pick up (and we can help).
AI Integration: Rufus
This year, Rufus, Amazon’s generative AI-powered shopping assistant now available to all U.S. customers, enhanced the customer shopping experience for many Prime Day buyers. Rufus offers a conversational way to search for products, compare options, and get personalized recommendations. Users can easily track orders, find detailed product information, and even get help with customer service inquiries within the Amazon Shopping app.
“The introduction of Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, was a welcome addition to this year’s Prime Day. In my own Prime Day shopping experience, Rufus provided much faster information about the product I was viewing than if I scrolled through the entire product detail page. I am very interested to see how this feature impacts conversion rates moving forward. It definitely seems like a nice win for the customer shopping experience.”
Joe O’Connor Sr. Innovation & Growth Director at Tinuiti
Source: Amazon
Ad Console Outage
It’s worth noting that during this year’s Prime Day event, the Amazon Ads console experienced downtime on the first day, which disrupted the ability to log into the platform. At Tinuiti, our teams noted the intermittent load-time issues about two hours before the full crash, which occurred at 8:33 pm PST and came back up around 9:53 pm PST.
Prime Day 2024 Hot Takes From Tinuiti Experts
We’ve covered the numbers, but let’s hear what stood out most to our Tinuiti experts during Prime Day 2024…
Amazon Marketing Cloud Proved Invaluable for Advertisers
“Getting creative with AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) audiences allowed brands to drive incremental purchases with high ROAS. Most notably, we saw scale behind consumers who added a product to a registry and who added a product to their wishlist. We saw high efficiency targeting consumers who added a product to their cart over the last 2 weeks before Prime Day. Being able to target those consumers who are in the brands shopping funnel already with creatives pulling in promotions resulted in efficient clickthrough rates.”
Karen Hopkins Marketplaces Strategist at Tinuiti
“Implementing an effective lead-in strategy is crucial for scaling your lower funnel campaigns effectively during the Prime Day event. It is essential to build a sufficient pool of qualified consumers in advance in order to reach them starting on day one. Leveraging AMC audiences to engage customers through innovative approaches proved to be advantageous throughout the event.”
Jordan Lampi Senior Specialist, Commerce Media at Tinuiti
Optimizing Budgets for the Time of the Day Was Key
“Account for the traffic flow when mapping out your budgets. The morning of day one will bring strong volume but also some of the pricier CPCs. Take advantage of lead in deals and a heavier spend push the day before the event starts, as some consumers who are browsing for Prime Day deals will make that purchase if a good deal is there while browsing the day before (I’m guilty of such behavior). Fast forward through a slower middle part of the day for Day one, evening hours offers a critical time to be visible. But day two is arguably the most critical for budget planning, as the morning and afternoon can be a bit of a deadzone for Prime Day, with the grand finale coming in the core post working hours as people get in their last minute deals. Make sure you are loaded up to spend in those hours, as they are the most critical of the entire event”
Ken Magner Strategist, Commerce Media at Tinuiti
Agility and Pre-Prime Day Preparation Proved to be Crucial
“Despite the Amazon outage on Tuesday, leveraging our partnered third-party tools, like Skai, was essential for our Prime strategy. By using these tools, we efficiently managed budgets and set ourselves up for a successful second day. As a result, we not only achieved but exceeded our revenue goal, bringing in 114% of our target for this year.”
Brooke Martinez Commerce Media Specialist at Tinuiti
“Every Prime Day there is a need to pivot due to unforeseen issues. Taking time to work through the scenarios with a client ahead of time creates more flexibility during the event. If we know what the next steps are if a product runs out of budget or if we’re not hitting goals then we don’t need to wait for approval.”
Karie Casper Strategist, Commerce Media at Tinuiti
Prepping for Prime Day 2025
To prepare for Prime Day 2025 and future sales events, sellers should focus on several key areas. First, prioritize building a strong product foundation by collecting customer reviews and optimizing product detail pages with relevant keywords. Second, invest in customer retention strategies such as retargeting ads to recapture potential buyers. Third, anticipate increased competition by monitoring deals across platforms and considering expanding to new marketplaces. Finally, be sure to leverage data from the previous Prime Day to refine your strategy for the upcoming year, testing new tactics and optimizing performance.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tinuiti’s Commerce Services, or if you’d like to learn more about emerging marketplaces, contact us today. Also, be sure to sign up for our upcoming webinar where we’ll take a deeper dive into how you can crush Q4—and keep an eye out for our Prime Day Data Recap coming soon.
You Might Be Interested In
