Commentary

Amazon Prime Day May Be A Benchmark For Spending Trends And The Economy

Adobe on Tuesday released data on key themes and categories around consumer spending habits for Prime Day sales, which the company believes will become a benchmark for spending during the remainder of the year.

The Amazon Prime Day that took place on July 11 generated $11.9 billion -- up 8.5% year-over-year (YOY) -- and on July 12 generated $22.4 billion -- up 6.1% YoY, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index. This was based on analysis of more than one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites and more than 100 million SKUs in 18 product categories.

Adobe also notes that consumer spend slowed when discounts faded -- after July 12.

Melissa Burdick, president of Pacvue, which supports brands through ecommerce ad software, predicts Amazon will hold another Prime Day event later this year.  

Numerator, a data and technology company, published data in the first 32 hours of Prime Day, estimating that 42% -- about 2 in 5 orders -- amounted to $20 or less. About 13% totaled more than $100. The average household spent approximately $117, with 1 in 6 households spending more than $200.

advertisement

advertisement

Consumers leveraged Prime Day sales days for Back-to-School shopping, but Adobe data points to deep discounts across audio equipment, appliances, and children’s apparel  

Discounts across categories included:

  • Toys at 15.4%
  • Apparel at 12%
  • Electronics at 6%
  • Computers at 8%
  • TVs at 3%

To stretch budgets, consumers used payment methods like buy now, pay later (BNPL), which rose about 13% during Prime Day 2022 versus Prime Day 2021. The average order value with BNPL use rose 12% compared with the Prime Day event in 2022 versus 2021.

Brick-and-mortar retailers also experienced a lift in conversions during the Prime Day Event with buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS) options. There was a 20% boost in conversion compared to an average June day with for retailers offering BOPIS.

Earlier in June, Adobe released online inflation data from the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI). It showed that online prices in June 2022 rose 0.3% on annual basis, dropping 1% month-over-month.

Consumers spent about $74.1 billion online in June, with more than $451.7 billion spent online year-to-date. The grow rate averaged 7.5% year-over-year.

The big inflation news is that grocery prices that continue to surge -- hitting record highs at 12.44%.

Next story loading loading..