Internet Retailer projects shoppers will spend $4.04 billion on Amazon during its fourth annual Prime Day this year, which will begin July 16. That’s a 67% jump from the Internet Retailer-estimated $2.41 billion in sales on Prime Day last year (held on July 11, 2017). In the U.S., shoppers are expected to spend $2.50 billion, Internet Retailer estimates.
Comparatively, last year Amazon grew its overall Prime Day sales by 60% year over year during the 30-hour sale.
There are several factors driving the projected 67% increase. For one, Prime Day will span 36 hours this year, six hours longer than last year’s 30-hour sale. In the U.S., the sale will start at 3 p.m. Eastern on July 16. Prime Day will also extend into Whole Foods Market stores, where Prime members will receive an extra 10% off a selection of products. Amazon acquired Whole Foods last summer.
Second, Prime Day will be held in 17 countries this year, up from 13 countries a year ago. The markets new to Prime Day are Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg. These countries will join the U.S., U.K., Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria.
Third, Amazon has more Prime members this year than it did last year, widening the pool of potential Prime Day customers. Prime Day deals are only available to members of Amazon’s Prime loyalty program, which now costs $119 annually for U.S. consumers. With Prime, U.S. members get expedited shipping on their orders, access to streaming music, and video content and other perks. (Membership cost and what’s included vary by country.)
Amazon earlier this year confirmed it has more than 100 million Prime members worldwide. Although the company did not specify a year over year comparison, Hitwise (a part of digital marketing firm Connexity Inc.) says Amazon signs up roughly 200,000 new Prime members per month. From November 2017 to April 2018, Amazon registered 1.4 million new members for Prime, and of that, 375,000 of those new members were in December 2017 alone, according to Hitwise.
Additionally, 75% of U.S. online shoppers are planning to visit Amazon.com on Prime Day this year, according to a survey by Bizrate Insights and Internet Retailer in March 2018. Comparatively, the results of the same survey last year showed just under 70% of shoppers planned to shop on Prime Day 2017. It’s not just the current Amazon Prime members that are planning to shop on Prime Day. 27% of consumers who planned to shop on Amazon during Prime Day do not currently have a Prime membership.
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