Amazon has its largest sales day ever with Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day has come to a close, and the online retailer is reporting that the 200 million-plus worldwide members of its premium service, Amazon Prime, purchased more than 375 million products with discounts totaling over $2.5 billion. 

The retail giant also reported that on Tuesday, the first day of the two-day event, Amazon enjoyed the largest sales day in its history.  

Home goods, fashion and beauty products were among the top-performing categories this year, Amazon reported, and its best-selling items were the Amazon Fire TV Stick, LANEIGE Lip Glowy Balm, Apple AirPods and Bissell Little Green Portable Deep Cleaner. 

Meanwhile, economists and others are crafting their own analyses of the sale to break down what it all means. Chicago-based data analytics firm Numerator reported that preliminary numbers from its survey of 4,200-plus shoppers showed home goods was the top category for purchases, making up 28% of all sales for the two-day special. That’s followed by household essentials at 26%.  

Other grocery-related departments that ranked in the top 10 were health and wellness and the beauty and cosmetics category, tying for fifth place at 19%. Pet products took seventh place at 14%. 

Grocery, which made up about 10% of sales on the first day, originally ranked as the 10th most popular category but was edged out of the list by the end of the second day, according to Numerator.  

While little data was immediately available on the specifics of Amazon’s grocery sales, the online retailer worked to boost the category this year, too, offering a wide variety of deals at its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market stores. Amazon Prime members were offered a 25% discount for all purchases at the company's brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh locations, for instance.

Numerator’s top five items purchased list varied slightly from Amazon’s report, with Temptations Cat Treats taking the top spot, followed by Amazon Fire TV Stick, Liquid I.V. Packets, Echo Dot 5 and Blink Outdoor Camera. 

The average order size by Numerator survey respondents was $54.05, up from $52.26 the previous year, and the average total household spend was approximately $155.67. The average spend for an individual item was $32.35.  

Nearly nine out of every 10 of all Numerator survey respondents (88%) were Amazon Prime members, and almost every single respondent knew it was Prime Day during the event (97%). More than half (55%) said the sale is the main reason they purchased something from Amazon during Prime Day.  

While inflation fears appear not to have deterred spending, consumers were cautious about price and shopped around for better deals. Thirty-six percent said they checked prices with Walmart before buying, and 25% checked Target’s deals.