• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, July 22, 2022

Amazon filled inboxes with more than half a billion emails around Prime Days this year. And while email was hardly the only medium used, it apparently played its part in driving $12 billion in global sales, according to an article posted by SparkPost this week. 

The ecommerce giant started emailing around June 21 with 47 million emails comprising 10 campaigns. And it peaked with 92 million emails within 52 campaigns on July 12 and 90 million in 48 campaigns. on July 13, the two Prime Days, according to the post written by John Landsman, manager, research analytics at SparkPost.  

But did they work? The read percentage, the metric used by SparkPost for this analysis, averaged 27% for the period, compared with 30% for all Amazon activity. And it peaked at 38% on July 2.

Landsman offered these nine examples of Amazon Prime Day emails:

June 21 — Prime Day is officially back. Quantity: 39,541,000. Read rate: 18.9% 

June 22 — Prime Day is almost here—Claim 30+ games now. Quantity: 34,,000,000. Read rate: 57.1%. 

June 26 — LEAKED: Prime Day Deals. Quantity: 39,884,000. Read rate: 23.8%. 

July 2 — Tick-tock…the Prime Day countdown has begun. Quantity: 2,027,000. Read rate: 40%. 

July 8 — Hi [REDACTED] Enjoy Early Prime Day Deals on Amazon Devices. Quantity: 180,000. Read rate: 51.5%.

July 12 — Yahoo! Prime Day has landed. Quantity: 2,879,000. Read rate: 23.5%. 

July 13 — Amazon Devices Prime Day Deals. Quantity: 1,550,000. Read rate: 30%

July 14 — Discover Prime Day offers. Quantity: 33,000. Read rate: 50%. 

July 14 — Last call for Prime Day deals. Quantity: 22,706,000. Read rate: 25.3%. 

Meanwhile, the competition was only moderately busy trying to ride along. At least that’s true of the six big multichannel brands examined by Landsman. Target, Macy’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s. 

These brands sent fewer emails, and garnered lower read rates. SparkPost offers some examples: 

July 11 — Target: [REDACTED] Target Deal days is live. Shop all the deals now. Quantity: 51,225,000. Read rate: 9.5% 

July 11 — Macy’s: Shop Black Friday in July Specials through Wednesday! Plus, Daily Deals end tonight. Quantity: 39,459,000. Read rate: 12.9%.

July 12 — Walmart: R-O-L-L-B-A-C-K-S & more are here. Quantity: 38,875,000. Read rate:  

July 11 — Best Buy: Surprise—Black Friday in July starts today! Quantity: 29,375,000. Read rate: 12.8%.

July 11 — Bed, Bath & Beyond: EVERYONE saves! Get up to 50% off outdoor picks during The BEYOND BIG Savings Event! Quantity: 24,995,,000. Read rate: 10.5%.

July 11 — Kohl’s: [REDACTED] Summer Cyber Deals are here to make your week! Quantity: 20,369,000. Read rate: 10.2%. 

Now we can all look forward to this year’s Black Friday campaigns, starting in October. 

The SparkPost article can be accessed here.