Our intrepid Ecommerce team fearlessly assesses their predictions for Amazon’s record-breaking event (high fives are deserved all around).
By Jordan Sagisi, Senior Director, Amazon Commerce
It’s official: Amazon Prime Day 2023 was a big deal. Amazon even announced that the special event’s first day on July 11 produced the single largest sales day in company history.
Approximately 200 million U.S. Prime members spent $12.7 billion at Amazon over the event’s two days, which represents 6.1% year-over-year growth. As a retail marketer, it’s notable that Prime Day continues to break YOY sales figures, especially considering that Amazon created the event from scratch as a stand-alone event untethered from traditional shopper seasons and holidays.
We heard from Amazon directly that they offered more deals this year than during any previous Prime Day, which to some degree may account for the increase in sales — and data provided by The Mars Agency’s strategic partner, Analytic Index, certainly proves that brands showed up in abundance.
Anecdotally, all of the products I proactively shopped for before Prime Day went on sale during the event. Amazon noted that Home, Fashion, and Beauty were among this year’s top-selling deal categories. Furthermore, this year’s Prime Day was the largest ever for independent sellers within Amazon’s store.
In June, The Mars Agency’s Ecommerce team made predictions about what we expected to see unfold during Prime Day. Read on for a fearless look back at how well some of our experts fared:
Kayla Corridon, Director, Commerce Media, expected “beauty and personal care essentials to win out over luxury tech. This is a prevailing trend that should be evident in Prime Day shopping carts through a substantial rise in sales for beauty tools and personal care items like skincare.”
Result: Amazon listed Fashion and Beauty among this year’s highest-selling categories and even named LANEIGE Lip Glowy Balm as a top-selling deal! However, electronics — specifically Amazon devices — were a hot category as well; the third-generation Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote was the best-selling product globally.
Kristin Wall, VP-Ecommerce, predicted that “Although planned spending is forecast to be down due to ongoing concerns over inflation, shoppers still love a good deal.”
Result: Kristin was right! At the beginning of 2023, concerns over the looming recession and consumer plans to spend more on travel and dining had marketers worried. But these trends shifted as the year progressed — as illustrated by Prime Day’s record-breaking first-day sales.
Lauren Baugh, Senior Manager, Ecommerce, suggested that we’d see “the biggest discounts on Amazon’s own devices but should also find significant savings on other major tech brands as we have in previous years — which is perfect timing for delivering seasonal back to school essentials.”
Result: Analytic Index data finds that Amazon devices were, indeed, the most deeply discounted (by more than 50% in some cases). But other brands such as Samsung and Anker also gained a strong presence on the platform. Meanwhile, there were numerous deep discounts across the Office Supply category, indicating the smart strategy of brands such as Sharpie, Elmer’s Glue, Five Star and BIC to capitalize on the back-to-school shopping mindset.
Alyssa Holland, Director, Analytics, forecast that “Influencers will spark significant interest for ‘must-have’ fashion and personal care products.”
Result: Both on-platform via Amazon Live events and offsite through influencers on Instagram and TikTok, Prime Day deals were heavily promoted leading up to and during the event. Many independent sellers on Amazon (especially in Beauty) ran Prime Day ads on Instagram. While Amazon Live didn’t have a huge presence on-platform unless you went looking for it, Prime Day was certainly heavily discussed on social media from both a paid and organic perspective.
The Mars Agency’s Ecommerce team knows that succeeding through online marketplaces requires quality content, winning the search algorithm, and a whole lot more. Our experts take clients to a new level of success by providing end-to-end business management, including operations, advertising, and digital shelf optimization. Using the agency’s proprietary data platform, our Digital Shelf Studio creates, enhances and optimizes client activity across the ecommerce landscape, helping them beat the competition and convert shoppers. To learn more, contact Kristin Wall at [email protected].
Want to learn how your brand fared during Prime Day? Use Analytic Index’s free dashboard, a first-of-its-kind resource covering sales, promotions, discounts, sponsored search, and brand visibility.
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About the Author
Jordan Sagisi is Senior Director for Amazon Commerce at The Mars Agency, where he helps brands create winning strategies and activations across the Amazon media ecosystem. He has more than 15 years of experience in the digital media industry, leading agency teams in delivering both brand-building and commerce-driving objectives for CPG clients. Jordan can be reached at [email protected].