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TechnologyJul 18, 2019
How Was Amazon Prime Day 2019?
Prime Day sales surpassed the combined sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Amazon Prime members purchased more than 175 million items during the two-day sales event.
Seattle—Prime Day sales were off the charts this year, once again taking the top spot as the largest shopping event in Amazon history, the e-commerce giant announced Wednesday.
The two-day event, held July 15 and 16, saw more sales than the previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Amazon didn’t disclose total sales figures for Prime Day 2019 but did note that shoppers bought more than $2 billion of products from independent small and medium-sized businesses.
The retail titan was expected to rake in sales of $6.1 billion on Prime Day, according to marketing technology and services firm IgnitionOne.
That’s $2 billion more than what analysts expected last year, though Amazon did not disclose Prime Day 2018 sales figures either.
This year’s event was 48 hours long, while last year’s was 36 hours, providing an additional chunk of time for consumers to shop deals.
Prime members purchased more than 175 million items compared with more than 100 million products purchased during last year’s event.
Top-selling items in the U.S. included the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, the Instant Pot DUO60 and 23andMe Health + Ancestry kits.
Amazon’s devices did particularly well. The Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, and Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote were the among the top-sellers worldwide.
Amazon declined to give specific sales figures for its jewelry offerings, but there were deals to be found in the luxury sector.
Ross-Simons offered discounts on select pieces from its Byzantine collection, which includes on-trend yellow gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings.
Shoppers looking for a watch could find deals on Citizen, Seiko, Bulova and Daniel Wellington watches.
Luxury shoppers also could pre-order products from Haus Laboratories, a new line of products from Lady Gaga, available exclusively on Amazon.
The company said it signed up more Prime members on the first day of the sale than ever before, almost matching that number the second day.
The global reach of Prime Day has widened as well with shoppers from 18 countries participating, one more than last year and double the number of countries that participated in the first Prime Day five years ago.
Groups of Amazon warehouse employees organized walkouts ahead of Prime Day, claiming to be subjected to harsh working conditions and hard-to-meet quotas.
Demonstrations against the company were held in the U.S., including a warehouse in Minnesota and in the company’s home base of Seattle, as well as in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Poland.
Meanwhile,
retailers like Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Best Buy held sales of their own to build on the Prime Day momentum, offering discounts and free shipping.
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