Sales over the course of Amazon Prime Big Deal Days grew 42% year over year for some sellers, according to data from Momentum Commerce.
That’s slightly better than the progress after the first of Amazon’s two-day October Prime event.
Momentum Commerce is a consulting company for online retailers. It says it manages Amazon sales for brands that account for more than $7 billion in annual sales on the marketplace. Among its clients are Crocs and Lego.
Amazon itself “announced that Prime Big Deal Days was its biggest October shopping event ever.” It added that more Prime members shopped during the Prime Big Deal Days sale in 2024 than in 2023. The online marketplace did not release a dollar amount for total sales during the event, nor did it announce the percentage growth year over year.
However, it did say that, “Globally, Prime members saved more than $1 billion across millions of deals, including on seasonal merchandise and gifts.”
“Our 2024 Prime Big Deal Days event marked a strong start to the holiday shopping season, with record-breaking sales and participation from Prime members worldwide,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of worldwide Amazon stores, in a statement. “This is just the start of great deals from Amazon over the holiday shopping season, paired with fast, free delivery for Prime members to help them check items off their gift lists.”
Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000 Database. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America by annual web sales. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. It ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces by 2023 third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
How was Amazon Prime Big Deal Days for sellers?
Day 2 of the Amazon October Prime event inched closer to matching the first day’s sales, according to Momentum Commerce Data. Day 2’s sales were 9% below Day 1’s during the 2024 October Prime event, which is a slight improvement over being 10% below Day 1 during last year’s sales event.
Moreover, on Day 2, Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2024 sales were 32% below July 2024’s Prime Day sales. That figure stood at 34% after Day 1, Momentum Commerce said. Furthermore, the gap between the July and October Prime Day sales events was closer to 50% in prior years, according to Momentum Commerce.
Sales spikes in the evenings of both days of the October event surpasses morning spiked, Momentum Commerce said.
“The morning hours have traditionally been the strongest periods, but between the hourly patterns observed during July Prime Day and the latest event, this seems to have shifted fairly dramatically,” said Andrew Waber, director of marketing at Momentum Commerce.
Amazon effect on online retail
Globally, sales growth for retailers other than Amazon was flat year over year during the Prime Big Deal Days 2024 event in October, according to ecommerce platform provider Salesforce. Although that’s consistent with the July 2024 Prime Day event from a global standpoint, there are differences in sales by region.
In North America, 76 of the top 2000 online retailers use Salesforce as their ecommerce platform, according to Digital Commerce 360 data. And in 2023, those 76 online retailers combined for more than $136.077 billion in web sales.
During the October 2024 Prime Day event, though, U.S. online retailers outside of Amazon saw a 5% decline in sales growth compared to the prior year’s event, according to Salesforce. Meanwhile, European online sales outside of Amazon during the October 2024 Prime Day event grew 9%.
“Amazon Prime Big Deal Days performance was lower than expected this year, most likely due to recent weather events and consumer uncertainty around the upcoming U.S. election,” said Caila Schwartz, director of consumer strategy and insights at Salesforce, in a statement. “And while discount rates were more enticing than last year, retailers still stayed conservative in preparation for robust Cyber Week deals, contributing to the fall in overall results.”
How good were the discounts during the Prime Big Deal Days sales 2024?
Moreover, global discount rates grew 9% year over year during the October 2024 Prime Day. The average discount rate grew to 18%. In the U.S., discount rates grew 14% year over year to an average rate of 21% off product price.
Based on Salesforce data, the categories with the highest global sales growth during the October 2024 Prime Big Deal Days event were:
- Electronics (36% growth)
- General Apparel (up 36%)
- Health & Beauty (up 21%)
That growth correlated to having the largest discounts globally. The apparel category had an average discount of 27%, according to Salesforce. For electronics, that was 20% — with a notable 25% year-over-year increase in discount percentage. The Health & Beaty category had an average discount of 17%.
The highest discounted categories in the U.S. for both Prime Big Deal Days combined, according to Salesforce:
- General Apparel: Average discount of 31%
- Health & Beauty: Average discount of 20% (a 27% year-over-year increase)
- Food & Beverage: Average discount of 13% (up 23% year over year)
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.