Prime Day 2024: Another Record-Breaker Despite Amazon Hiccups

Sales Offset By Deals

This year, Feedvisor clients saw an 11% drop in average selling price versus last Prime Day, but more people were buying: this decrease in order value was offset by an increase of 40% more orders during the two-day event. The top-performing categories mirrored those widely reported on, including electronics, where sales surged by 61%. Other leading categories were apparel and shoes, home and garden, beauty, and food and grocery. While last year’s focus was on essential items, this year’s appeared to be more focused on upgrades in tech, according to Adobe Analytics: tablets saw a 117% increase and televisions a 111% rise. Small kitchen appliances also experienced a significant boost, with a 76% increase in sales.

Several products stood out across categories such as health and beauty, supplements, and streaming. Consumer favorites captured by Numerator included the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Premier Protein Shakes, Liquid I.V. Packets, Glad Trash Bags, and COSRX Snail Mucin Serum. Two of these were fan favorites from previous years – Liquid I.V. Packets and the TikTok famous COSRX Snail Mucin Serum. 

Deals and Discounts Had Mixed Reviews

While a Numerator study revealed that over half of shoppers (63%) were very satisfied with the deals, many consumers were disappointed by the discount depth and were vocal about it across social channels. One shopper expressed frustration, noting, “I had $340 worth of items in my cart, and on the first day of Prime, that number only dropped to $325.” Despite this, 41% of shoppers purchased items from general Prime Day deals, and 28% took advantage of Lightning Deals.

Discounts were more substantial when compared to last year:

• Electronics: 23% off (up from 14%)
• Apparel: 20% off (up from 12%)
• Televisions: 16% off

However, the general consensus seemed to be it wasn’t enough for consumers, and it was too much for sellers with already thinning profit margins from the increase in fees and competition from the Chinese platform Temu. 

Consumers Want the Biggest Bang For Their Buck

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of items sold for under $20, indicating that many shoppers focused on affordable purchases, either seeking out lower-cost deals or making smaller, impulse buys. Despite this focus on affordability, the average order size increased from $54.05 last year to $57.97 this year, suggesting that consumers were willing to spend more per transaction when they made a purchase. However, the average household spend slightly decreased from $155.76 last year to $152.33 this year, which may reflect a more budget-conscious approach or a shift in how spending was distributed across transactions and retailers. Overall, while shoppers continued to engage actively, they balanced their spending with a focus on affordable individual items.

Back-to-School Sales Boom

Consumers are no longer waiting until August to shop for back-to-school items. Prime Day 2024 saw a significant surge in back-to-school shopping, with 85% of back-to-school buyers planning to shop during the event. Sales of backpacks, lunch boxes, stationery, and other school supplies rose by 216% across both days with July 16th being the frontrunner, up 210% compared to daily sales levels in June 2024.

Similarly, Feedvisor’s clients in the Arts & Crafts category saw a 360% increase in sales during Prime. Most likely attributed to consumers looking for school supplies. The top product purchases in this category included glue sticks, colored pencils, and crayons.

Advertising on Prime Day Has Lost Its Efficiency 

As advertising continues to lose efficiency during major tent pole events, Prime Day was no exception. This year’s Prime Day advertising spending was dominated by two themes: higher levels of shopper browsing and purchasing activity, and increased competition for this shopping volume, which led to an average increase in CPCs of 47% for some categories over the previous year.

Metrics from Feedvisor’s clients highlight these trends: ad sales were up 63% over last year, and investment in ad spending increased 87% in 2024 compared to 2023. However, this year efficiency fell, with the advertising cost of sales (ACOS) up 33% year over year. While the all-in cost-per-click across all of our clients rose 2%, conversion rates fell 7%, supporting the drop in efficiency. Despite these challenges, the average order value increased by 26%, indicating that while competition and costs increased, so did the value of purchases made by customers.

Top Ad Round-Up for July 16th and 17th ONLY

Across our clients, Sponsored Display and Sponsored Product ads were the winners for profitability during the two-day event. These ad types yielded a higher average basket price, indicating that customers who interacted with these ads tended to spend more per purchase. Additionally, Sponsored Display and Sponsored Product ads generated higher impressions, and benefited from a lower cost per click (CPC), making them more cost-effective for brands looking to maximize their advertising budgets. This confirms that these ad types are ideal for driving immediate responses and purchases, making them the best options to focus on during a limited time window like Prime Day.

However, we can’t forget the power of DSP ads. As a true upper funnel ad tactic, in order to see the effectiveness of DSP, you need to look at the full lead-in period. By the time Prime Day comes, DSP has done the heavy lifting preparing sponsored ads for Prime Day by creating awareness about the brand’s participation in Prime and driving traffic to the PDP. To maximize your ad spend efficiently, you need to flip your budget from DSP to sponsored ads during the two-day event. 

This combination of higher spending per customer, greater reach, and cost efficiency helped our clients drive increased sales and brand visibility across both days.

Notable Hiccups

Sellers faced significant difficulties with counterfeit products affecting their sales. Multiple sellers reported that their Prime Day Deal price with the red “Prime Day Deal” banner was not showing in search results, leading to higher-priced counterfeit products being displayed as the default search result. This issue, coupled with the presence of multiple counterfeit sellers on their ASIN, exacerbated frustrations. Seller support forwarded the issue to the correct team, promising a response within 24-48 hours, just in time for Prime Day to conclude, highlighting the lack of timely support for registered brand owners.

Amazon’s advertising platform for self-serve clients was down Tuesday night, making it difficult for brands and sellers to accurately forecast and adjust ad spending accordingly. And, on top of that, ad metrics for DSP, including the detail page view (DPV) and detail page view rate (DPVr) were down for the full two days. This did not affect optimizations because we don’t make same-day optimizations on the DSP based on single-day performance as metrics are delayed and unreliable. It did prevent clients from receiving reporting which was backfilled after the event. 

Prime Day deliveries also faced potential delays as Crowdstrike launched a test causing a glitch just one day after Prime. A participant in Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program, which allows businesses to sell via Prime from their own warehouses, reported that Next Day Delivery orders were facing delays, impacting metrics and causing stress for sellers.