Amazon officials are calling this year’s Amazon Prime Day online shopping event the retailer’s “biggest Prime Day shopping event ever” after U.S. shoppers spent some $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Prime Day sale.
That’s an increase of 11% from a year ago.
Consumers took advantage of steep discounts to update their electronics, apparel and small home appliances, according to Adobe, which tracks online spending across all U.S. retailers during Amazon’s annual summer sale.
“It’s clear now that the Prime Day event has been a catalyst across these major categories, with discounts deep enough for consumers to hit the buy button and upgrade items in their homes,” Adobe analyst Vivek Pandya told Bloomberg.
Adobe measures total online spending during the Prime Day period because rival retailers offer their own deals, prompting shoppers to comparison shop multiple sites. Amazon said its marquee sale set another record for the number of items sold but didn’t provide specific sales data.
According to Bloomberg, the average household spent about $152 on Amazon on Prime Day, down slightly from last year, according to Numerator, a market research firm that tracked spending from 35,588 households. Top-selling products included protein shakes, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick streaming device and Glad brand trash bags, according to Numerator.
EMarketer Inc. expected U.S. shoppers to spend $8.2 billion on Amazon during the event, up 5.5% from last year, Bloomberg said. Amazon captures about 60% of all online spending on Prime Day, compared with 40% on a typical day, making it difficult to grow much further, according to EMarketer, an industry research firm.
