Amazon Sets Another Sales Record

Amazon has done it again. Prime Day set yet another record for the online retailer, bringing in the biggest sales day in company history…again. This is the third year in a row that Amazon sales peaked on Prime Day, which eclipsed both biggest holiday shopping days of 2016. But how big was the jump over last year? Considerable. Monday’s 30-hour sales bonanza turned in 60 percent more in sales than the same day last year. By any stretch, that’s huge. As icing on the cake, Amazon added more Prime members to their plan than any other single day in the history of the company. According to a media release, “tens of millions” of Prime members bought something on Prime Day 2017.

One of the hottest items, according to the company: Amazon devices. Everything from the Echo Dot smart speaker to the classic Echo speaker, Fire tablet, and even Kindle eReaders. A deep discount on the 55-inch Element 4K TV, equipped with Amazon Fire streaming service, sold out in only a few hours. Amazon reported several other popular electronic items including a programmable pressure cooker, Sony PlayStations, Nintendo Switch systems, and Game of Thrones Blu-Ray discs. Seems like there will be a lot of people binging in Westeros leading up to the Season 7 premiere.

So, it seems that Amazon Prime Day was yet another Amazon idea that hit all the right notes for customers. The idea was initially floated as a way to celebrate Amazon’s 20th birthday. The celebration was also a cleverly messaged promotion, not only offering deep discounts, but enticing customers to sign up for Prime in the process. The Amazon service, which retails at about $99 per year offers both free two-day shipping on a number of items as well as access to Amazon’s streaming service on mobile devices and the ability to “borrow” books for free from Amazon’s Kindle lending library.

Offering all these services allows Amazon Prime not just as a streaming alternative to Netflix or Hulu, but as a standalone category item, that many consumers purchase on top of subscriptions to other streaming services. While users still have to pay for first-run movies as well as many others in the Amazon library, there are a good number offered free, most on a rotating basis.

Then comes the “add on” of the free shipping. Order a couple of items each month while not having to pay the shipping costs and the “fee” ends up feeling like a freebie. So, depending on how you look at it, every Prime customer feels like they’re getting a deal.

Robert Gillings is an award winning writer, producer, actor architectural designer, philosopher and financial consultant.