- Amazon Prime Day sales soar 12% in the first few hours compared to last year, signalling strong consumer spending.
- Senator Bernie Sanders criticises Amazon for increasing the risk of worker injury during high-pressure sales events like Prime Day.
OUR TAKE
Amazon Prime Day 2024 started strong with a 12% increase in sales in the first seven hours compared to last year. The event, designed to attract new subscribers and ensure customer loyalty, presents a wide range of items from protein shakes to tech gadgets such as the Amazon Fire TV stick. Despite promising sales figures, the event has come under scrutiny from US Senator Bernie Sanders for allegedly increasing workplace injuries among Amazon employees during peak sales periods. As Amazon continues to expand its reach, the impact of Prime Day goes beyond the immediate sales, pointing to broader economic trends and consumer behaviour.
—Heidi Luo, BTW reporter
What happened
Amazon’s Prime Day 2024 event saw a significant increase in sales, up nearly 12% in just the first seven hours compared to last year. This data was reported by Momentum Commerce, a company that manages sales for 50 different brands on Amazon’s platform.
The early surge in sales indicated strong consumer engagement and suggested a successful start to the annual sales season. Numerator, a market research firm, further detailed the spending trends observed during the event. By noon New York time on the first day, the average household spent approximately $100 on Prime Day purchases.
The most popular items included protein shakes, Amazon Fire TV sticks, sunscreen and food from Amazon’s own Happy Belly brand. These top-selling products reflect a broad consumer interest in both everyday essentials and technology, and highlight the wide range of goods that attract shoppers during this highly anticipated sales event.
Also read: Amazon’s AI assistant ‘Refus’ is now available to all U.S. users
Also read: Amazon enhances its AI applications to maintain advantage
Why it’s important
Launched in 2015, Prime Day is not only a showcase for Amazon’s marketing prowess, but also a barometer of consumer confidence and spending habits. At the start of this year’s event on 16 July 2024, Adobe predicted that online sales across all retailers could reach a total of $14 billion during the two-day event, an increase of nearly 11% on the previous year.
Prime Day is crucial to Amazon’s strategy of deepening relationships with existing customers and attracting new subscribers. As of March 2024, around 180 million people in the US were Prime members, an increase of 8% on the previous year. The membership, which costs $139 a year, offers a number of benefits, including discounts on shipping and video streaming, and is crucial for Amazon to maintain its market dominance in the face of increasing competition.
However, the impact of Prime Day goes beyond sales figures. Senator Bernie Sanders has raised concerns for Amazon workers due to the increased workload during such peak sales periods. “Prime Day and the holiday season are characterised by extremely high volume and intense pressure to work long hours and ignore safety policies,” she said in a statement.
