Prime Day sales up more than 60% for large retailers

by Kim Souza ([email protected]) 319 views 

Christmas in July paid off for many retailers – again. Adobe Insights reports larger retailers with more than $1 billion in annual revenue saw a 64% jump in online sales on Monday (July 15) and a 72% gain the following day. The marketing firm said the two-day sales extravaganza saw revenue spike 68% for larger retailers

Smaller companies with annual sales under $5 million also benefited as Adobe reports a 30% gain on day one, rising 25% on day two.

“Prime Day has become an indisputable summer shopping holiday, greatly benefiting online retailers that can attract consumers to their site through compelling email campaigns or offering value-add services like buy online, pick up in-store,” said Jason Woosley, vice president of Adobe’s commerce product division.

Jumpshot marketing reports Amazon saw 81% more transactions on Day One (July 15) than the average summer day. Day two transactions rose 20.6% at Amazon over a year ago. Jumpshot said seven retailers did better than Amazon on Day 2 compared to a year ago. Those retailers are Gap (100.44%), Kohl’s (42.8%), Nike (153.2%), Best Buy (60.7%), Walmart (48.2%), Sam’s Club (48.2%), and Costco (35.3%).

Jumpshot reports Nike was the biggest beneficiary of the “Black Friday in July” craze as its online transactions grew two and a half times year-over-year. But department store giants like Macy’s and Nordstrom did not do well. Nordstrom saw online transactions down 74% over the two-day period, compared to a year ago. Macy’s sales were down 31% year-over-year. Day two transactions were equally bleak for Jet.com (-79.4%) and Sears down 50.2% from a year ago, according to Adobe.

Amazon said it sold more than 175 million items during this year’s Prime Day shopping event, which is more sales for the past Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. This year’s event ran for two full days compared to 36 hours last year.

“We want to thank Prime members all around the world,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “Members purchased millions of Alexa-enabled devices, received tens of millions of dollars in savings by shopping from Whole Foods Market and bought more than $2 billion of products from independent small and medium-sized businesses. Huge thank you to Amazonians everywhere who made this day possible for customers.”

Amazon did not disclose the sales numbers for the two-day event. Walmart has not publicly made any statements about its summer sales event which started a day ahead of Amazon.