Amazon Prime Day First Day Sales Reach $7.2 Billion Amid Back-to-School Leap

Amazon Prime Day’s opening day reportedly generated $7.2 billion in U.S. sales.

That’s according to a report Wednesday (July 17) by Reuters, citing data from Adobe Analytics. That data, the report said, also showed a massive increase in back-to-school spending, which jumped 210% compared to daily sales levels in June.

Adobe said total online sales rose 11.7% on Tuesday (July 16). In 2023, shoppers spent $12.7 billion online across the event’s two days. This year, the report noted that Amazon had offered early access to deals before the two-day event began to capitalize on demand.

The Reuters report also cites information from data firm Numerator showing that Amazon’s average spend per order was $60.03 during the first 32 hours of the Prime Day event, up from $56.64 last year.

According to the report, Adobe’s study of direct-to-consumer transactions based on more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, shoppers would find deals on Wednesday, with discounts of roughly 23% for electronics, 20% for apparel and 15% for toys.

This follows reports from Tuesday that the opening hours of Prime Day outpaced last year’s first few hours, up 12% year over year.

“Consumers continue to spend, but they do so strategically, which can benefit a sale like Prime Day,” Sky Canaves, an analyst at EMarketer, told Bloomberg News.

Amazon saw its highest-ever sales volumes during Prime Day 2023, with 375 million items sold worldwide and Prime members saving more than $2.5 billion.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote last month that summer deals events — like the kind offered by Amazon, along with retail rivals such as Walmart and Target, were enjoying widespread — and growing — participation.

Target ran its Circle Week from July 7 to 13, open to all members of its free loyalty program. It overlapped Walmart Deals, which ran July 8-11 and was open to everyone, following an earlier members-only event.

Last year’s PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Summer Deal Days 2023: How Amazon Still Dominates” examined data from a survey of more than 5,500 Amazon Prime members and Walmart shoppers.

That research showed that Amazon Prime Day attracted twice as many participants as Walmart+ Week, even though Prime Day is exclusive to members, whereas Walmart+ Week was open to everyone. According to the report, 40% of consumers made purchases during Amazon’s event, compared to 20% during Walmart’s, an increase from 36% and 11% respectively the previous year.