Prime Day is akin to Christmas in June for many Amazon fans. But how much benefit does the company really get from its promotion? In today’s Insight Flash, we look at whether Prime Day sales have a bigger impact on overall AMZN spend in the UK or the US, how much of those sales go to third-party sellers in each country, and whether the exclusivity for Prime members actually encourages sign-ups.
Both the UK and the US saw an acceleration in AMZN spend growth the week of Prime Day versus the prior week. In the UK, spend trends changed direction from -4% y/y the week before the event to 15% y/y the week of Prime Day. In the US, there was a much larger acceleration from 11% y/y spend growth the week before Prime Day to 46% y/y growth the week of the event.
Spend Growth
How much of this increased spend goes to Amazon’s own products versus third-party sellers though? Looking at spend for Amazon Marketplace, our proxy for third-party sellers, it is clear that more of the sales benefit in the UK went to the company’s own products. Amazon Marketplace’s share of total spend decreased from 67% the week before Prime Day to 62% the week of Prime Day. In the US, the percentage was flat at 55% for both weeks.
Spend Share
Part of the Prime Day benefit for Amazon should be increased sign-ups for its Prime membership program, as deals are limited to those with a Prime subscription. In the UK, the Prime Day announcement on June 2 didn’t do much to change a deceleration in subscriber growth, as measured in number of Prime transactions. In the US, interest in the program (as measured by transaction growth) picked up in the two weeks prior to the announcement, which may have more to do with Memorial Day purchases than the Prime Day promotion.
Prime Transactions
