The annual Amazon Prime Day is officially the largest online shopping event in the U.S.
During the 48-hour sales extravaganza this year, Amazon sold more than 175 million units of products, the e-commerce giant said on Wednesday. The order volume far exceeded the 100 million units sold during last year’s 36-hour Prime Day event, as well as sales from 2018’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
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The rest of the retail sector benefited from the Amazon-induced excitement, too. On Monday and Tuesday, U.S. online retailers collectively saw a surge in website traffic and the number of orders placed, according to a new study by consumer market intelligence firm Adobe Analytics.
During the Prime Day promotion period, large online retailers with more than $1 billion in annual revenue saw a 68 percent jump in sales compared to an average Tuesday, while small retailers with less than $5 million in annual revenue saw a 28 percent uptick in sales, the study found.
Adobe’s conclusions were based on analysis of one trillion visits to 4,500 retail sites, including 80 of the top 100 online retailers in the U.S.
“Prime Day has become an indisputable summer shopping holiday,” said Jason Woosley, head of commerce product and platform at Adobe Analytics. “Due to its ‘halo effect,’ large retailers with major discounts online reaped the benefits of Prime Day.”
Since Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015, a growing number of its retail rivals, including Target, Walmart and eBay, have introduced competing sale events. Target, for example, hosts a two-day promotion on its website that perfectly overlaps with Amazon’s Prime Day. And eBay launched an almost parodic event called “Crash Sale” on Monday to drop a truckload of deals—in case the Amazon site crashed.
