Amazon Says Prime Day Beat Black Friday, But Did They Make Any Money?

Amazon said customers ordered 34.4 million items worldwide during its highly publicized Prime Day sale, breaking the record set by last year’s Black Friday sale.

Amazon’s shares touched a record high of $473.21 on Thursday, a day after the online retailer held the one-day event.

The company also said a record number of new members tried its $99-per-year Prime service on the day of the sale, with “The Lord of the Rings” movie box sets proving the most sought-after product.

Limited-period deals were offered on a host of items ranging from microfiber towels to televisions and robotic vacuum cleaners.

Sellers who use Amazon’s fulfillment services reported a 300 percent rise in unit sales, with one vendor saying he made $16,000 per hour.

Green smoothie mixes were among the highest-selling items in Japan, while Canadians used the day to stock up on Huggies diapers, and the Monopoly board game was France’s favorite product, Amazon said.

On the downside, the company came in for criticism on social media, with some customers disappointed by the speed at which offers ended and the lack of blockbuster discounts.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, also launched a three-month sale on Wednesday to counter Amazon, which has emerged as a serious competitor in the past few years.

The first day of WalMart’s sale saw a triple-digit jump orders for same-day pickup compared with a year earlier, with high demand for Apple’s iPad Air and FitBit’s Charge HR, the company said in an email on Wednesday.

Did Walmart Beat Amazon on Prime Day?
By most accounts, the deals offered by Walmart as a counteroffensive to Prime Day were just as hit-or-miss as Amazon’s, with a few truly great bargains mixed in with a whole lot of meh.

Matthew Kirkwood of the deal-tracking site Ben’s Bargains said via email, “Amazon Prime Day was a bad deal for consumers,” because Amazon has offered better prices in the recent past on items like the Amazon Echo and Fire TV Stick than it did on Prime Day. At the same time, though, Kirkwood put “anyone who avoided Walmart’s deals” in the category of winner on Prime Day - because the deals just weren’t that good either.

So why might Amazon still come out of Prime Day looking worse than Walmart? For one thing, Prime Day was Amazon’s baby, so it should bear most of the blame if shoppers feel it was a bust.

For another, it’s Amazon. Shoppers expect a lot more out of Amazon than we do out of Walmart - which after all is up there with McDonald’s as one of the most-bashed brands on the planet.

Normally, social media pours on the praise when retailers host big sales. Yet according to Brandwatch, there were nearly as many negative social media mentions of Prime Day as there were positive: 41,000 vs. 47,000. “A split this close is rare,” Brandwatch’s Kellan Terry said via email. “The majority of the time, positive mentions severely outnumber negative mentions.”

Meanwhile, Walmart received 34,000 social media mentions, and “many negatively categorized tweets are actually referring to Prime Day with Walmart as a better alternative.”

Finally, Walmart comes out the winner (or non-loser) from the consumer point of view because even if its “Rollback” deals weren’t amazing, at least they didn’t disappear in 10 minutes, or even 24 hours. “Our prices aren’t over after just one day,” a spokesperson told AdAge. “These rollbacks will be available for up to 90 days while supplies last.”

Source: Brad Tuttle, Time

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