Prime Day was a winner for Amazon.com Inc., but Cyber Monday comes out on top as its leading sales day.
Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500, reported that Cyber Monday this year was its biggest sales day ever, surpassing its sales totals on Prime Day 2017, which had previously held the crown as Amazon’s biggest-ever sales day. Prime Day is Amazon’s annual summer sale that launched in 2015 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It was held July 11 this year.
Amazon declines to release sales figures for Cyber Monday or Prime Day, and a spokeswoman would not specify how much higher Cyber Monday sales were compared with Prime Day. Internet Retailer estimates that Amazon generated $2.41 billion in sales on Prime Day this year, up nearly 60% from $1.52 billion in 2016.
Orders placed through its mobile app increased more than 50% year over year worldwide, Amazon says. Shoppers also favored deals on Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant devices. Amazon reports that the Echo Dot was its top selling item on Cyber Monday.
“Amazon customers shopped at record levels during the Turkey 5, ordering hundreds of millions of products from toys to fashion to electronics and Amazon devices,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer unit, referring to the five day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
Data from Adobe Digital Insights estimates that U.S. shoppers spent a total of $19.62 billion from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday (Nov. 23-27), up 15.2% from the comparable stretch last year. Cyber Monday was the biggest of the five shopping days, with consumers spending $6.59 billion, up 16.8% from $5.65 billion last year. (Numbers are rounded.)
Amazon wasn’t alone among major online retailers in reporting record sales on Cyber Monday. Online home furnishings retailer Wayfair Inc. (No. 16) says Cyber Monday was its biggest sales day in company history, with the bulk of sales occurring from 9 pm-midnight Eastern on Monday. Sales throughout the five-day stretch of Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday jumped 53% compared with the year-ago period.
“On Cyber Monday, Wayfair customers purchased a sofa every 13 seconds, a mattress every eight seconds and a rug every two seconds,” Wayfair says.
Among other retailers setting online sales records or reporting other growth are:
- Online marketplace eBay Inc. posted its biggest sales day on Cyber Monday 2017. A spokeswoman declined to specify just how much sales were up year-over-year on Cyber Monday, but did say that desktop spending outpaced mobile spending. “[This suggests] that many people were diving into their gift lists from home or at the office,” she says.
- Kohl’s (No. 18) reported that nearly 40% of its online orders on Black Friday were picked up in stores. Kohl’s also reported that mobile accounted for more than 60% of its site traffic on Thanksgiving, and that Thanksgiving Day was its biggest online sales day ever. Kohl’s did not share any data on Cyber Monday 2017.
- J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (No. 33) reported that shoppers purchasing through its mobile app on Cyber Monday spent at least 3.5 times more than all other shoppers who bought online on average. 60% of its online traffic originated from mobile devices on Cyber Monday. A J.C. Penney spokesman declined to specify what kind of a lift the retailer experienced in sales on Cyber Monday.
- Online travel accessories retailer eBags Inc. (No. 155) says Cyber Monday was a record-setting day, with its eBags brand and exclusive products ranking as best-sellers. The e-retailer, now part of Samsonite, declined to give dollar figures, but it also said international sales set a record and will continue to grow as Samsonite aims to globalize the eBags platform.
- U.K.-based online beauty retailer Feelunique.com, No. 243 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Europe 500, reported record sales during the stretch from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, doing more than 6 million pounds ($8.0 million) in sales during those four days. Feelunique says it shipped 400,000 items to shoppers in 83 countries during over the holiday shopping period, with business more than doubling in China and France.
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