Last week’s Prime Day (July 15-16) marked Amazon’s biggest shopping event in its history with sales surpassing those of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to the e-commerce retailer giant.
Declaring the news, the company sold more than 175 million items online over the 48-hour event, overtaking the £100 million items sold during last year’s event. Some of these items included headphones, laptops, TVs, luxury beauty products and household cleaning supplies.
In terms of top-selling deals, Amazon highlighted that its own devices such as the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, and Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote all outperformed in sales over the two-day event.
Mobile in-apps take a hit
New research from AppsFlyer looked at the top 100 retail apps during Amazon Prime Day, revealing that the online e-commerce giant dominated the annual shopping event as other retail apps struggled to compete.
AppsFlyer compared the rate of app installs, in-app events and in-app purchases in the UK before Prime Day and during it. Findings showed that 65% of apps experienced a decrease in app installs, while 45% experienced a significant decrease of -10% in app installs.
Meanwhile, 52% of apps experienced a decrease in in-app events and 53% experienced a decrease in in-app purchases
With half of retail apps witnessing a negative growth during Prime Day, it is clear that Amazon is forcing its dominance in e-commerce as retail apps continue to suffer, even as a 65% decrease in app installs.
“’In recent years, Prime Day has become an industry-wide milestone that marks the start of retailers’ summer sales. This year told a different story, as Amazon remained the dominant platform around its awareness day, while other mobile e-commerce players took an evident blow,” said Paul Wright, managing director of UK, France, MENA, AppsFlyer.
“In order to harness the momentum of large sales events, such as Prime Day and Black Friday, retailers need to be thinking about how best they can navigate the mobile ecosystem; optimising their app strategy and resonating with bargain-hunting shoppers. Only by understanding and anticipating the needs of consumers will retailers remain competitive with the e-commerce giant and reap the rewards of today’s smartphone savvy consumers,” added Wright.
