Analyst Pegs Amazon Prime Day Sales at $3.4B

Amazon’s upcoming Prime Day is expected to smash previous record revenues -- generating somewhere around $3.4 billion in sales -- according to a new report from Coresight Research.

For perspective, that’s roughly the same sales volume the 205-store supermarket company Weis Markets did all of last year.

According to Coresight, Prime Day – a 36-hour event of deep discounts for members of Amazon’s Prime loyalty program, beginning July 16 – generated about $2.4 billion in sales last year, so this year’s event would represent a 40% increase over last year. Amazon said Prime Day last year was the second-biggest selling day of 2017, trailing only the Cyber Monday kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

Amazon is expanding the promotion in part through making offers available at Whole Foods stores for the first time. The Seattle-based company is also offering Prime Day in more markets and over a longer period than it has in the past. The event this year begins at 3 p.m. (ET) July 16 and will conclude the following day at 7 p.m.

Coresight analyst Deborah Weinswig said the event this year will emphasize Amazon’s own products and brands, including new offerings in the nascent grocery and apparel categories.

“[A]side from encouraging purchases through deals, Prime Day aims to boost the number of Prime memberships," Weinswig said. "There are no official figures on the number of customers that subscribed to Prime during last year’s shopping event, but we can assume that Prime Day 2017 was very successful to this end. In reporting for fiscal 2017, Amazon disclosed for the first time that the number of paid Prime subscribers exceeded 100 million globally."

Related:Whole Foods Once Again Expands Amazon Prime Benefits