Amazon ran a promotion to help small businesses in the runup to Prime Day this month, which helped generate $1.9 billion in small-business products in the two-week period.
The Spend $10, Get $10 promotion offered a $10 credit to be used on Prime Day. It applied to members who spent $10 on select small-business products and brands in the 2-week period beginning June 7. Over 300,000 sellers were eligible this year, and it included products on Amazon Handmade and Launchpad, according to the June 2nd press release announcing Prime Day.
Today, Amazon said Prime members purchased over 250 million items worldwide on Prime Day. While such statistics are interesting, don’t expect Amazon to get granular with its data. “In a typical fashion, Amazon issues a long, but extremely vague press release following Prime Day,” Juozas (Joe) Kaziukėnas of MarketplacePulse.com tweeted. “A bunch of random figures.”
What Kaziukėnas found most significant: “Prime members in 20 countries shopped more this Prime Day than any previous Prime Day.” This was the first time Amazon held the 2-day shopping event in the month of June, though it is not a given that Amazon will hold Prime Day in June next year.
Not surprisingly, Amazon said some of the best-selling categories around the world included electronics and Amazon Devices. But Amazon also revealed that shoppers started their back-to-school shopping, “purchasing more than 600,000 backpacks, 1 million laptops, 1 million headphones, 240,000 notebooks, 40,000 calculators, and 220,000 Crayola products.”
Oher data Amazon pointed to in today’s press release:
- Best-selling categories worldwide for Prime Day 2021 included tools, beauty, nutrition, baby care, electronics including Amazon Devices, apparel, and household products.
- Top-selling products worldwide for Prime Day 2021 included iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum, Keurig K-Slim Coffee Maker, Apple Cider Vinegar Gummy Vitamins by Goli Nutrition, and Crest 3D White Professional Effects Whitestrips.
One fact that’s easy to overlook is how Prime membership has changed since first introduced as a shipping option and later expanded to offer videos. In a section called, “Every Day Made Better with Prime,” you can see how benefits have expanded to include Amazon Music, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos, and Amazon Pharmacy.
In case that last one comes as a surprise, Amazon explains: “Prime members also receive free two-day delivery on prescriptions from Amazon Pharmacy and prescription savings at more than 60,000 participating pharmacies in the U.S.”
