SimilarWeb Intelligence Report: Prime Day purchases increased 51% YoY

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SimilarWeb, the world's leading digital market intelligence company, today released the first in a series of reports on Amazon Prime Day 2020. Overall, Prime Day 2020 outperformed 2019, with product views and unique purchases up 5% and 51% respectively. The second day of 2020 performed slightly better than 2019, with only a 24% drop-off from day 1 (26% in 2019) in product views, as consumers gravitated to lower-priced categories.

"As a result of COVID-19, Amazon was forced to push Prime Day 2020 from July to October, a decision that led many to wonder if the event would carry the same impact. The proximity to the start of the traditional holiday season, a precarious economic position for many shoppers and 'discount fatigue,' created new challenges for the retail giant." — Greg Malen, VP Solutions, SimilarWeb

A major difference between 2019 and 2020 were the days leading up to the event

In 2019, the top five categories averaged a 3x increase in the number of purchases from the days prior, while in 2020 that number was only 2.4x; however, absolute volume differences were offset by the growth in consumers regularly shopping on Amazon.

The highest growth categories reflect the realities of 2020

Prime Day mirrors regular behavior from Amazon shoppers with the top five categories by purchase volume unchanged (Home & Kitchen, Electronics, Health & Household, Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry, Beauty & Cosmetics). The highest growth categories, however, reflect the realities of 2020, with Handmade (175%), Arts & Crafts (116%), Toys & Games (95%) and Tools and Home Improvement (75%) leading the way, as consumers seek activities to do around the house. The growth of the Handmade and Arts & Crafts highlight areas where Amazon is promoting small and medium businesses, but in regards to overall volume, they are still undersized categories.

Amazon continues to leverage Prime Day to promote their brands and products

Half of the top 50 products in 2020 (vs. 21 in 2019) are Amazon branded, with only Apple and Instant Pot featuring more than one ASIN (2 each). Amazon Devices are particularly popular, representing seven of the top ten products (vs. six in 2019), led by the 3rd Generation Echo Dot.

Within Amazon's largest categories the retailer continues to feature their first-party brands. Four of the five largest brands showed YoY purchase growth, led by Solimo (137%) and Essentials (107%).  The strong Prime Day showing of Essentials, Amazon's clothing and accessories brand, is representative of Q3 performance, when purchases expanded 20% YoY, most regularly competing with Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and Gildan.

Basic Care, Amazon's OTC medicine line, grew 45%, significantly less than Solimo; however, this mirrors the behavior of 2019 when Amazon began to promote the brand within the health and household category.

For more of SimilarWeb's continued Prime Day coverage throughout the week, visit https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/2020-amazon-prime-day-consumer-insights.

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