Amazon Prime members save over $1B during Prime Big Deal Days

Amazon’s fall Prime sales extravaganza produced some very big savings for members of the Amazon Prime paid membership program.

According to figures released by Amazon, Amazon Prime members saved more than $1 billion across millions of deals during the e-tailer’s Prime Big Deal Days sale held Oct. 10 -11. For the second consecutive year, Amazon kicked off the holiday shopping season with a two-day exclusive October shopping event for Prime members.

On the first day of Prime Big Deal Days, U.S. Prime members purchased more than 25 million items with same-day or next-day delivery. Analysis from Numerator indicates that Prime Big Deal Days had higher sales than any previous Amazon promotional event, excepting its Prime Day 2023 extravaganza held in July of this year.

According to Amazon, sales trends observed during Prime Big Deal Days include:

• Apparel, beauty, home and toys were among the best-selling categories.
• Customers purchased millions of Alexa-enabled devices, including Fire TV and Echo, which were best-sellers.
• Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation), Bissell Little Green Multi-Purpose Portable Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner and Crest 3D Whitestrips were among the best-selling deals.
• Squishmallows, Barbie Toy Boat Playset and Catan were among the best-selling toys in the U.S.
• Prime members ordered more than 150 million items from independent sellers in Amazon’s store, most of which are small and medium-sized businesses, with Clean Skin Club Clean Towels, Hula Home Spray Bottle and PicassoTiles 100 Piece Set among the best-selling small business products in the U.S. on the first day of the holiday kick-off event.

“Prime Big Deal Days was a strong start to the holiday shopping season, offering Prime members an exclusive early opportunity to save and surpassing our expectations. This event outpaced last year’s holiday kick-off event, with more Prime members shopping this year,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. “Millions of Prime packages in the U.S. have already been delivered, and we’ll continue to offer fast, free delivery across our wide selection throughout the holidays. Thank you to our employees and selling partners around the world for their continued commitment to our customers as we head into this busy shopping season.”

Salesforce: Second-day discounts, AI drive Prime Big Deals Days sales

According to analysis from Salesforce, the U.S. experienced a 1% decline in online sales over the two days of Prime Big Deal Days. However, Salesforce says U.S. consumers waited for better deals on the second day of the event, which actually posted a 1% year-over-year increase in online sales while online sales during the first day dropped 4% year-over-year.

Salesforce analysis also suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) played a significant role in U.S. online sales during the event, driving up orders from shoppers who clicked on a product recommendation driven by predictive AI.

According to Salesforce, the product categories with the highest AI order share were general handbags and active apparel (15% each), while skincare had the highest growth in AI order share (26%).

Salesforce data also shows that global online sales and traffic growth were essentially flat across both days (+2% and -1% respectively). European shoppers pulled the global number up by buying more per transaction – +4% units per transaction.

However, much of the online sales growth in the region was driven by higher prices, with the average selling price up 13%. Salesforce says AI played a similar role in driving global online sales during the event as it did in the U.S.

“It’s no coincidence that the health & beauty sector, with the largest increase in year-over-year orders influenced by AI-powered product recommendations, was also one of the categories that saw the strongest sales growth globally during Prime Big Deal Days,” said Rob Garf, .VP and GM of retail at Salesforce. “AI was a game-changer during Amazon’s manufactured holiday this year, driving significant sales growth for digital retailers who used it effectively to engage and influence shoppers.”